Alea Iacta Est
by ReaperScion
Summary: "Alea Iacta Est; The die is cast" - these famous words are actual once again as Cerberus and others risk it all in a final gambit for survival. However, conflict lurks right around the corner...
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Hey there, ReaperScion here. I bid you welcome to this new DA/ME crossover project. This is something myself and **_**joniedinofreak**_** have been working on the past month or so. After weeks of discussing the story, etc. etc. we are finally ready to release the first of many chapters. As this is a collaborative effort, you will notice that **_**joniedinofreak **_**will be writing all of the Cerberus-oriented chapters, while my focus will be on a certain other faction. Unfortunately, I will have to postpone "A Reaper In Thedas" until at least June/July, as I currently have only just about enough time to focus on one story, so once again apologies to anyone following that particular tale. If you have any comments or questions about this chapter, please contact **_**joniedinofreak, **_**or indeed leave a review which I will pass onto him ASAP. ReaperScion.**_

_-2186; Two days before the Battle of Earth-_

John White stood in the cockpit of the heavy cruiser Niddhogg. The Niddhogg was the main ship of the recon element, accompanying 'Project Ethereal'. At this very moment a message played.

"You are our last hope. As I speak the Alliance navy is attacking Cronos-station, so do not expect more communications from headquarters. You will go to lands where no man has ever gone before. You will go past the Ragnarok system on of the borders of our galaxy and beyond. You will prove that we know no borders. Go and show the galaxy what humanity is worth. And make sure the money invested in the project doesn't go to waste. Before we fini-"

Communications went out at that point. Heavy silence was felt across the bridge as reality hit them.

"I guess with General Petrovsky gone and the big man missing," the co-pilot began, "you're now coming second in rank, sir?"

"It seems so, navigate us through this area Darby, and warn me when we are past the danger of the black holes."

At that point White turned around and went to his personal quarters.

He pondered about his assignment. Project Ethereal, Cerberus' last plan… Its sole purpose was to ensure the survival of humanity, a daring plan it was, to bring thousands of colonists beyond the dark hole-ridden area that was known as the Ragnarok system, into deep space. If they could build a colony on a suitable planet in a galaxy beyond, then they might be able to prepare for the Reapers, should Shepard fail, that is. The journey would be long and hazardous; the Reapers, power failure, hull breaches and cryo-pod malfunctions were all a threat, despite the fact that this project had every bit of advanced technology available to Cerberus. VI's and shackled AI's would tend to the hull if any damage was sustained. The most advanced FTL engines there were would propel them; technology adapted by studying Reaper wreckages, but even then the journey would take hundreds, if not thousands of years. Of the thousands of colonists, there was no guarantee that any would awaken from cryo stasis when the time came. They could only hope that the AI's wouldn't rebel in some manner or the experimental power cores wouldn't give out.

And who was to say there wouldn't be anything waiting for them at the other side of deep space? Be it hostile aliens, Reapers or just more black holes. Every single one of these factors showed just how desperate they were. Even Cerberus' top scientists, engineers, etc. were onboard the cryo ships.

And then they'd still have to hope that ground-side wildlife wouldn't prove to be immune to metal slugs, against all odds. It was a last-minute revelation that made the decision come through to replace all harriers, hornets, etc. with 'ancient' cool-down based weapons instead of the thermal clip based weapons.

"Sir, we made it through the area, no casualties in the fleet. Standing by for orders."

"I'll be there in a minute." White hurried back to the cockpit. _"It is time"_ was the one thought running through his head as he positioned himself at the comm. "Open communication to the fleet, short range communications."

"It is done, sir."

"My friends, we made it into deep space, a feat that we should relish in, if we were not so desperate. Yet this is not where this stops. I ask of you to turn off all unnecessary programs to save power. This includes IFF's, communications, garbage compactors, etc. as they will be useless here in deep space. When we reach another galaxy the VI's and AI's will warn us. Now go, put your ships on autopilot and walk into your cryo stasis pods. We will speak on the other side, no matter how long it takes." He stopped and gathered his breath, while watching every ship blot out of the scanners; only one thing remained for him, before he could do the same; one last message, to secure the mission and the lives of these men and women, who entrusted him to watch over them.

"Open the communications towards every known Cerberus base, emergency channel."

"We are connecting, sir." Then a nod, to indicate their connection.

"This is Admiral John White of the Niddhogg, the mission is a failure. We just lost our fleet to black holes. I repeat Project Ethereal has failed! No! Steer away damnit! St-," The pilot terminated communications and the other unnecessary systems.

"Good job, men, get to your cryo stasis pods, I want nobody running around when I do the last check-up."

"Aye, aye cap'n," the pilot responded "Permission to speak, sir?"

"Granted, speak freely."

"Do you really think we'll make it?"

"No, but it was still an honor serving with all of you," John White turned and went to do the final check-up. 15 minutes later, he too went into cryo sleep. Marking the beginning of a new journey... or the end of an old one perhaps?

* * *

_-842 TE; Thedas; Tevinter Imperium-_

Julius Faucus sent a fireball towards the incoming creature. As the fireball hit the beast full in the face, its companions burned alongside it.

"I'm starting to feel exhausted, out of mana poultices!" He shouted. At that point an Emissary appeared, preparing a spell of his own.

"_Why does it look different?"_ Julius pondered for a moment before shaking his head.

Julius focused all his remaining mana into one spell. A crushing prison surrounded the Emissary, preventing the spell, but it was all he could give. The only thing that prevented him from collapsing was his staff. One of the rogues ran up to him.

"Here, mana poultice from the Emissary."

Julius nodded in acknowledgement and gulped down the potion. And then pain crashed down on him. He screamed as a combination of tainted blood, lyrium and something else rushed through his veins. He started to roll, a voice starting to resonate through his mind.

"_It seems my chosen one has done his mission. Accept my blood; join my ranks as the first conscious human."_

Instead, flames gathered in his hands and formed a tempest in the darkspawn ranks. Where there once stood an army, now they perished. Where they had once smelled victory, annihilation awaited them.

After the ranks broke and the darkspawn were retreating, one of the higher officers started to walk towards Julius, only for the latter to walk towards the woods and fire a flame burst into the treeline. Darkspawn scattered out, only to be dispatched. The ambush was put down before it even had a chance of being set off.

"What happened?"

"I don't know, I just can..." He paused, searching for the right word, "I can sense them."

He looked towards the potion on the ground, noticing a small pool of it remaining in the vial.

"I have to study this; it could be our key to victory." He turned around and walked off, the vial clutched carefully between his hands.

-4 months later-

Darkspawn hordes were starting to break and scatter across the lands, losing every sense of organization at the hands of a new group of warriors. These warriors were the only ones the darkspawn feared. The only ones who could sense the darkspawn and deal with an attack, before it even began. They came from every race united under the Tevinter banners, led by a mage by the name of Julius Faucus. As time progressed, they started riding Griffins; creatures terrifying and beautiful, meant to take down enemies on the ground... or the archdemon in the skies. They began to wear grey robes, the color grey after all is a color that doesn't stand out, it hides people, be it in shadow or night. These warriors started calling themselves the Grey Wardens. They were the ultimate force against the darkspawn. But even they weren't enough to stop them as long as the archdemon lived. So naturally, they developed a plan. But that is another story, for another time. For the archdemon would only get killed around 150 years later, when Julius and those he recruited were long dead, and the deathblow would come from a former elven slave, of all things.

* * *

_-3444, The Niddhog, The new galaxy. –_

"Awakening Commander Robin Stark. De-freezing protocol completed, welcome back Commander."

Those were the first words Robin Stark heard. Even if the voice was synthetic, he was glad to hear it. He would've even hugged Amy, if he could that is.

"Amy, glad to hear your voice!"

"This unit exists to serve, Commander. This unit would advise you not to move until the medical VI finishes its scan and confirms you are ready and able for active duty once again."

"Sure, so is the Admiral awake already? That was the plan, wasn't it, awaken him first?"

"Negative Commander. Admiral John White died during the awakening process; he didn't follow the guidelines and hence did not reach the stated amount of energy before going into cryo stasis. He died two hours ago, at the point of arrival in this galaxy. You are now the highest ranking officer aboard the Niddhogg. The highest ranking officer in the fleet is aboard the Ammut. He was awakened one and a half hours ago. There have been six messages sent towards the Niddhogg in the past 1000 years. Medical check-up complete, you are free to walk around, Commander."

The news of the Admiral's decease was stunning, it kept Robin's mind occupied long enough for him to only realize the last part of the message about ten minutes later. Only six messages? And 1000 years, an entire millennium, 1/50th of a cycle. What happened? It made Robin stop for a few moments, just long enough for the news to sink in once again. The fleets of nearly every species were at the Battle of Earth. It made him feel dizzy, so he hurried, maybe the messages were good news, and maybe they had won.

"Amy, our comms were out, where did the messages come from?"

"They came from an unmanned communications relay in the Milky Way. It was situated on a moon and was most likely rigged to the fleet's frequency, and after sending the messages it would've self-destructed to remove all evidence. The fact that the messages came through the QEC explains the nature of the relay. Any more intelligence required?"

"No thanks Amy. Can you please play the messages?"

"Affirmative Commander, playing messages. Message 1"

"Fleet, it is now two months since the Battle of Earth. We don't know what happened, but what we know is that the great Alliance plan failed. Their weapon did not fire, there's only one surviving ship out of the entire fleet. Apparently the moment they were supposed to retreat, a second Reaper group positioned themselves between the fleet and the mass relay. Aside from the single ship, nobody got through, Admiral Hackett, Urdnot Wrex, Tali'Zorah Vas Normandy, Admiral Koris vas Qwib Qwib, Major Kirrahe, Primarch Victus, Matriarch Lidanya, Commander Shepard, Garrus Vakarian and so many others are all MIA and presumed dead. The only real resistance to the Reapers at this very moment is coming from the remnants of the Cerberus fleet. The allied forces threw the full 100% of their capabilities on the Reaper fleets; let's hope we can buy them enough time to rebuild. Headquarters out."

"Message 2"

"Second status update, two years after the Battle of Earth. In the past two years the Krogan, Volus, Hanar, Vorcha, Batarians, Drell and Elcor went extinct. Our efforts were wasteful, what ships that were being built, got destroyed before they got completed. Human territory decreases by a colony per week, yet we adapt, for every two colonies the Reapers take they lose a capital ship, other casualties are negligible at this point. Slow them down with bug bites, we can't give up now. We'll have the weapon to defeat the Reapers if we get a few more months. Rumour goes that Commander Shepard is back. There is no proof for this however. We'll have to investigate this. Headquarters out."

"Message 3."

"Commander Shepard has returned! We are pushing the Reapers back! The Turians, Salarians, Geth, Quarians and Asari are successfully building ships and defeating Reapers, ground battles turn to our advantage. At this rate we'll be able to build our weapon and destroy them! Oh, right, today is around three years after the Battle of Earth. Headquarters out."

"Message 4"

Another voice came through.

"Today we can regard the battle of Earth four years past us. We have been betrayed. Our weapon was ready and about to make its first test against the Reapers when Commander Shepard sold us out. We should've known, he had all the signs of indoctrination all along and we just ignored it. The Hierarchy has been utterly destroyed and all contact with Quarians and Geth is lost. I fear that we won't last long anymore. Headquarters out."

"Message 5."

"The Battle of Earth is now ten years past. The Alliance has been decimated, what is left of humanity has gathered under our banners, and even though our territory is extremely small, we still have a better time than the Asari and Salarians. Those who are left are exiles and have joined up with us. We were naïve with our ideas of supremacy, what if we had joined up with the others from the very beginning? I wonder, would we have defeated the Reapers then? Anyway, we have taken to desperate measures to slow the Reapers down. Every colony has a planet bomb stuck inside its crust. The Reapers try to harvest and they get blown up. So many lives wasted with every push of a button, yet with every Reaper destroyed, who knows how many lives we manage to save in the next cycle? We aren't making illusions anymore, we know we won't win, but at least we can try to make the Reapers bleed enough to make sure the next civilizations avenge us. Good luck mission, headquarters out."

"Message 6"

"Twelve years have passed since the Battle of Earth, but even now we can feel its effects. We are the only world left, made up of the last Asari, Humans, Salarians, and god knows how they managed to survive till today… the Turians. When we die, it will mean the end of all advanced life in the galaxy, until the first of the next cycle appear. Yet we won't go out without a bang. Literally. The moment the last Human, Turian, Asari or Salarian in the base dies a planet bomb triggers. As you can guess by the sound of the gunfire coming closer every moment, the Reapers are assaulting us. Goodbye Ethereal and be our vengeance. Headqua-" A few gunshots echoed and then there was silence.

"Amy is this the end of the message?"

"Negative commander, the message goes on for about one and a half hours."

"Shut it off, I think I know how it ends. Is the crew thawed out already?"

"Affirmative Commander, there were 15 casualties, the Admiral included."

"Can you contact the rest of the fleet?"

"Affirmative Commander, Rear Admiral Uderzo has dispatched a shuttle carrying your new CO. His designation is Captain Geoffrey Lancaster. Our ship will also be dispatched to scout a nearby cluster."

"Well, let's get the crew ready heh?"

Commander Robin Stark had a bad feeling about this mission, but orders were orders and he'd get them from someone else soon enough.

* * *

_-9:30 Dragon, equivalent of 2125 TE-_

"Magic exists to serve man and never to rule over him. Thus spoke the prophet Andraste as she cast down the Tevinter Imperium; it was ruled by mages who brought the world to the edge of ruin. Your magic is a gift, but it's also a curse, for demons of the dream realm – the Fade - are drawn to you and seek to use you as a gateway into this world." Said Knight-Commander Greagor.

"This is why the Harrowing exists, the ritual sends you into the Fade and there you will face a demon, armed with only your will." Continued First Enchanter Irving.

"I am ready," replied Aeryn Amell, the apprentice who was about to go through her Harrowing.

"Know this apprentice, if you fail, we Templars will do our duty, and you will die."

At this Cullen, the Templar whose task it was to kill her shifted a bit uncomfortably. It was no secret that he was enamoured by Aeryn; it was why he was chosen. A test to see if he was able to do what was necessary if the girl he wanted was the one being possessed.

"This is lyrium, the very essence of magic. And your gateway into the Fade. The Harrowing is a secret out of necessity, child. Every mage must go through this trial by fire. As we succeeded, so shall you. Keep your wits about you and remember, the Fade is the realm of dreams. The spirits may rule it, but your own will is real."

"The apprentice must go through this test alone, First Enchanter." Greagor intervened. "You are ready."

And so Aeryn went into the fray. It'd taken her 40 minutes before she completed her test, yet it was the fastest Harrowing any of them had ever witnessed. Cullen rejoiced about the fact he didn't have to kill her. Yet when she flirted with him a bit after she woke up, he ran for it. He intended to confess his feelings the next day, yet because of a series of events, she had to leave with the Grey Warden Duncan.

Cullen hadn't been depressed like that for his entire life and it became quite obvious because of his treatment of other mages. Yet only a few blamed him, none in fact, except a senior mage that went by the name of Uldred.

* * *

_-2 months later. Niddhogg's arrival in the assigned system. -_

Captain Lancaster stared at the garden planet before his eyes. It was perfect. Initial scans indicated it had similar statistics as Earth, yet they needed to come closer for a better scan; they had to go in orbit to check if it was inhabited. Despite all the money invested in the ship, the one thing nobody thought about was bloody scanners. Guess that's what happens when certain people waste billions of credits sending probes into Uranus.

"Commander, get us into orbit over the planet. Now."

"But -"

"No buts, I gave you an order Commander. It is your duty to execute it."

He wondered "What was the man's name again? Something with Robin… Robin Hood?" He chuckled at his own joke.

"We're in orbit, sir."

"Good, commence the scan."

"Scanning, sir."

Suddenly Amy chimed in over the intercom. "Captain Lancaster-"

"Didn't I tell you lot to turn off the damn AI? Bloody idiots!"

Geoffrey didn't care about it a single bit. Having an AI on board was blasphemy in his books. AI's were a pet hate of his, seeing as they killed his entire family back on Eden Prime. He'd die before trusting a single AI.

So he waited for the scan to complete, and suddenly noticed that the Commander was talking to himself. He wasn't surprised; he looked like an insane person anyway.

"Status report!"

"Scan is 95% complete, sir… We are getting some interesting readings here, Captain."

"What readings?"

"Intelligent life-forms, we think they're of a late classical to early medieval ages level. We can't be sure about that until we send scouts to the surface."

"Doesn't matter, we've completed our mission, let's get out of here."

A terrific bang sounded from the lower levels of the ship, followed by several smaller bangs. The ship rocked from the impacts, its mass effect fields obviously failing to compensate for the explosions. Datapads and pieces of paper were scattered all over the floor, an unlucky crewman spilled his coffee and slipped on the liquid, falling flat on the hard floor while several others reeled from the hits and grabbed onto something before they fell too.

"What happened?" yelled Geoffrey as alarm klaxons started blaring all over the deck.

"Several meteors crashed into us, sir! We're in the middle of a storm!"

"What? Why didn't anyone tell me there was an incoming storm?"

He should've expected the answer to come from the Commander.

"Amy tried to warn you, but you didn't even bother to listen! This is your fault and your responsibility. Now, what are our orders?"

"Get us out of here! Now!" he roared, beads of sweat dripping down his forehead.

"Shields down, engines are offline, fifteen hands lost due to suffocation on the cargo deck, four others due to the impact of the meteors… Lockdown of cargo area complete." Responded Amy over the intercom once again.

"DIDN'T I TELL YOU LOT TO PUT THAT DAMN AI OUT? DO IT NOW BEFORE I EXECUTE YOU!"

"The Captain has brought this upon us, ignore his orders, get towards the armoury, gather your combat suits, activate mag boots, put your helmets on and take your weapons. I'll meet you at the escape pods!" ordered Robin over the shipboard speakers.

"DON'T LISTEN TO THE TRAITOR!" Geoffrey lunged at the Commander, only to get a fist in his face that knocked him out as another explosion sent him off balance right into Robin Stark's punch.

When he came to, Geoffrey was greeted by Amy's synthetic voice.

"All hands have abandoned ship, you are the last one alive here Captain. The majority of the ship has been disintegrated by secondary explosions, with the exclusion of this portion of Decks 1 and 2. This unit would advise you to run towards the last remaining escape pod near the cockpit. The meteor storm claimed two escape pods, but has passed for the moment."

"I still have to do one thing."

"Yes?"

"Nothing special…" He said as he went straight to the AI core one deck bellow, grabbing a gun off the corpse of a fallen crewmember on the way.

"Captain, what are you doing?"

"Doing what I should've done earlier." He stated as he reached his destination, taking aim at the AI-core and squeezing off a burst, slugs ripping through the core and blowing the machine to pieces.

"One AI down again, good." He mumbled as he made his way back to the escape pod.

The doors closed after he pushed the launch button, but it didn't launch.

"You made a big mistake Captain. I was trying to help you, yet you thanked me by trying to fry me. I was lucky the Commander anticipated this. He uploaded my core to his suit instead; he protects me. And I will cherish the thought that you died here, cold and alone, with no chance for rescue. I only wonder, will you start eating yourself to fend off the inevitable starvation, or will you bang your head against the wall until you finally manage to kill yourself? It will prove quite interesting to find out."

Geoffrey screamed non-stop for what seemed like hours, and the entire time he could've sworn the AI was laughing at him over the escape pod's comm.

_**A/N – joniedinofreak style:**_

_**Hello,**_

_**As my esteemed co-writer said, he handles the other-faction chapters, whilst I write these Cerberus and DA chapters. Yet, he deserves a lot of credit for these chapters too, as he is the one who gets the burden of spelling checking my chapters and of course make sure my weird way of formulating some things doesn't cause to much confusion. So, yes, if this chapter read easily, he's the one to thank for that. **_

_**Second, you can contact me and I'll answer any questions that I can answer, so don't ask for spoilers, because those don't drop in answerable, borderline cases will be discussed with **_**reaperscion**_**.**_

_**Now, I'm going to cut this short, before I start causing problems to my co-writer's ego, can't have that happen can we? He might start getting ideas! Can you imagine the horror? *shudders*.**_

_**Hope you enjoy(ed) your read and greetings,**_

_**Joniedinofreak**_


	2. Chapter 2

They were the last hope of their people. The Reapers had destroyed everything in the Milky Way. The last transmission sent by their brothers and sisters confirmed as much. Their modified ships would have to trek solemnly through the black, carving a path through the murky depths of dark space to a neighbouring galaxy they'd chosen for the rebirth of their civilisation. They would linger in stasis for the duration of the trip, conserving energy reserves for the ships to make it through the nothingness. Meanwhile, the advanced ship systems would keep a watchful eye over them, as well as conducting massive amounts of research, calculating various possibilities, contingency plans, and all manners of things that would help them in the future.

Thus, spending hundreds of years drifting through space would provide more than enough time for all sorts of breakthroughs, making their people more likely to survive any threat. Of course, if the Reapers were already preparing an ambush in the promised land, there would be no future. There would be no rebirth. There would be no them.

Providing that didn't happen, their plan would be to find a quiet planet suitable for their needs, and commence rebuilding. As this was happening, the few stealth frigates that were present in the evacuation fleet, having been designed after the ship of the infamous Commander Shepard, would scout out nearby systems. The presence of mass relays would confirm the existence of the Reapers in the new galaxy, and that there were indeed advanced species around that were being nurtured for the coming harvest. Of course, the absence of relays wouldn't necessarily mean there was nobody around; just that travel would be significantly slower, and that various races might possess radically different technologies from that of the so called "Reaper Legacy" techs.

That being said, the objective would remain the same. Observe any encountered races, rebuild, and once the time was right, make contact. They would unite the people of this galaxy against the Reaper threat, and ensure no more cycles occurred. The methods they'd have to use to achieve this goal were of no concern to them, if they had to make war on someone to make them see the truth, so be it. Survival was at stake, and nobody would get in the way. Every single one of them agreed that the ends justified the means in their unique situation.

_- 3444, Exodus Fleet, Unknown System, Unknown Cluster, New Galaxy - _

After a seemingly eternal amount of time drifting through dark space, the systems began awakening them from their sleep. One by one, they rose from their slumber. The lights on board the ships flickered and began emanating soft glows, being set on the power conservation setting as the fleet was reportedly low on energy reserves. The crews were already in a flurry, making all sorts of preparations for landfall.

They'd been in the new galaxy for weeks, but it wasn't until now that they found a suitable system. It had a radiant blue-hued gas giant, containing helium-3 in its upper atmosphere, which would act as fuel for the ships' conventional drives, an asteroid belt rich in element zero, several lifeless planets composed of valuable metals, and a tiny garden moon in orbit of one of these barren worlds. The system's sun bathed it in a kind, glowing light whose temperatures were adequate for life. The atmosphere was composed of a standard nitrogen/oxygen mix, much like many of the garden worlds back home. It was a truly idyllic setting.

_- A few weeks later -_

After a few weeks of setting up important infrastructure, the first of the stealth frigates was repaired, refuelled and retrofitted. There were of course many retrofits still yet to come, seeing as none of the advanced upgrades could be installed until more resources were mined. The frigate, dubbed the "Castamere" was due back in about a few months' time. In the event of an emergency, the Quantum Entanglement Communicator could be used to contact base. Reports would likewise be sent through the QEC, as this galaxy's communication buoy network was far from being set up.

The Castamere was nicknamed such by some gung-ho marine that had served on it for a short period during the Reaper war. The frigate hadn't seen any actual combat (its missions involved the deployment of ground teams only), and thus the lack of scars ensured it had been chosen for the installation of a stealth drive, and the subsequent journey across the universe. The name Castamere had stayed with the ship ever since, even though the crew didn't really understand why it was named such. The long dead marine had once explained, saying something about bad luck, and recounting the Castamere's past missions, where most of the ground teams never made it out alive. The Captain of the ship was appropriately nicknamed the "Lord of Castamere," and it had similarly stayed with him.

The crew of the ship had to hope the its reputation had been given a clean slate, because the Castamere's mission was only just beginning…

_- A week later -_

They'd been scouting systems for a week without incident. The most interesting thing that happened to the Castamere so far was watching a comet collide with a gas giant; in other words, nothing worth their immediate attention. Until now.

The Castamere was running another one of her routine sensor sweeps on a nearby system when something caught their eye. Sensors showed what appeared to be a garden planet not too far away from the system's sun. But that wasn't the most interesting reading they picked up. There was a faint signal coming from the planet.

"Engage stealth systems, our presence must not be detected," commanded the one known as Lord, the Captain of the ship.

His underlings complied, and soon a read-out appeared on the screen in the CIC with the heat-sink timer. They'd have to vent their heat storage tanks before the timer ran out; else they'd be risking hull integrity and the crew.

This gave the Castamere a limited window of opportunity to approach the planet, conduct necessary scans, and leave before anyone noticed. But seeing as they'd be there only for a few hours tops, the timer shouldn't even be a problem in the slightest.

As they made their approach, the sensors revealed something even more worrying. Thermal imaging identified several chunks of debris in orbit, which were still relatively warm. This was a tell-tale indicator of a very recent shipwreck.

"Send out the recon drones, have them comb the debris for anything worthy of note," ordered Lord once again.

"Understood, sending drones," retorted one of the crew.

They did not want to risk the Castamere in the space junk, seeing as it could contain hidden mines and other similar traps.

After a few minutes, one of the crew members ran up to the Captain, data-pad in hand. "Captain, sir! The drones have found something… something you'll want to see."

He took the pad in his massive hand and regarded it with a stony glare. As the crewman scampered off, the "Lord of Castamere" stood in silence for a moment, processing the data before him.

The first image showed several suited-up bodies floating in space… Human bodies… They'd clearly run out of oxygen, as a subsequent photograph showed one of their faces through the helmet, the dead little eyes locked in a thousand-yard stare.

With growing apprehension, Lord cycled through the rest of the images. Each showed a floating corpse or a piece of the destroyed ship's hull. Expecting to see more of the same in the last recon image, he was shocked when he saw something entirely unexpected.

It was another large piece of white hull, yet by far the most frightening. There were several circular holes in the hull piece, where escape pods had evidently parted with it. But one of these pods never got out. It was jammed by warped metal plates, left to sit in the wreck while its compatriots zoomed away to safety to the garden planet below. On the front of the pod, was the diamond logo of Cerberus…

* * *

Lord had assembled his officers in the CIC war room. They were all gathered around the conference table, talking softly to each other. Most of the crew members were the same species, but a few were Alliance Infiltration Units. No doubt the AIUs would be useful for their unique talents, and their technology was a valuable research investment. During the hundreds of years drifting through dark space, the on-board systems of the ships devised new upgrades for the AIUs, allowing them to blend in more easily, move more fluidly, and so much more.

Finally, he stood up, silencing the crew. "Attention crew. As you all know, we have a very serious situation developing here. At 0800 Standard Galactic Time, we received an unintelligible transmission from this planet. Upon closer inspection, we found debris from a shipwreck. This ship belonged to Cerberus," he paused to let the statement sink in, and continued "There may be several escape pods that managed to touch down on this planet's surface, and it is our duty to hunt the Cerberus operatives down."

He paused yet again, taking a long hard look at the attentive faces looking up at him. "Cerberus are traitors to humanity. They may very well be responsible for our defeat in the Milky Way. We cannot allow them to incite the same madness in this galaxy, that is certain. So, after conducting planetary scans, recon sweeps and making a report to Cencom, the following course of action shall be taken."

Lord brought up the tactical hologram of the planet below them, highlighting several areas for his crew to look at. "These," he said, pointing "are the areas where the pods crashed. We have counted two crash sites so far. Our recon drones are continuously sweeping the planet for any further readings. These other areas here are cities belonging to the indigenous population. They have not advanced beyond the "Middle Age" tech period that was seen on Earth. As a matter of fact, the planet's population is human. Our cloaked recon drones show as much." He said, cycling through the displays until he came to an up-close photo of a human settlement.

"This will make the hunt for Cerberus significantly harder, however I believe we'll be able to put our AIUs and other technologies to good use. I have already prepared a squad roster for maximum unit cohesion. You will find all relevant information being transmitted to your omni-tools right now. Gather your squads in the shuttle bay in one hour."

_- One hour later -_

Sure enough, all squads were present and accounted for in the shuttle bay in exactly one hour. The Lord liked precision. He paced along the neat, organised rows of infiltrators being deployed to the planet below, inspecting their gear. Each infiltrator carried two weapons of choice that were of the old design. The lack of infrastructure and materials to produce the standard thermal clip in reliable quantities ensured that all weapons were downgraded to the ancient overheat mechanism. It increased the likelihood of malfunctions, but then again the weapon didn't need any "reloading."

"Captain Lord, we are ready to go!" one of the infiltrators yelled. The Captain didn't even mind anymore when people used the meaningless nickname on him. It was like calling his ship the Castamere; no significance whatsoever. That wasn't her real name, and neither was Lord his one. If the crew wanted to call them that, fine, let it be.

"Acknowledged, you are clear to commence mission. Ensure Cerberus ends here!" And with that, he exited the shuttle bay.

The troops quickly piled into the shuttlecraft in an orderly fashion, closing the hatches behind them. The hangar doors slid down, revealing the beauty of the planet below. It was deep blue and emerald green, untouched by any industrial civilisation. The gun-metal grey of the Castamere was a stark contrast to the radiant world.

* * *

Lord was making his way back to the CIC, his footfalls causing dull thuds on the metal floor, when a crewman holding yet another datapad ran up to him.

"Captain, the drones have made another important discovery," he stated, handing him the datapad.

Lord glanced down at the warm, orange glow of the device, carefully studying the readout. One of the more sensitive recon drones did another pass over the hull with the blocked escape pod, detecting a body inside. It was curled up in the fetal position in the corner, and was supposedly still warm, hence alive. This presented an excellent opportunity to capture and interrogate an enemy prisoner. If handled smartly, the captive might even give up his information willingly.

"Prepare a shuttle. I want a squad of engineers to cut open the hull and retrieve this man. Have them assume the guise of Cerberus personnel, and ensure the prisoner sees only what he wants to see..."

* * *

**A/N: And here's the mysterious other faction. Who might it be? Stick around and you'll find out... **

**As usual, all reviews are appreciated. **


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: Hey, hey! It's me, joniedinofreak, again! I'm not going to say much in this Author's note. Just the following things:**_

_**It's my birthday, so please remind yourselves to leave a review, I'd appreciate it, so would reaperscion.**_

_**The usual thanks: To reaperscion for all the patience he had and you for reading this!**_

_**Enjoy this story!**_

* * *

_-3444, The Niddhogg, 15 minutes before evacuation -_

Jango was one of the few former marines in the fleet. Most of Cerberus' army, after all, existed out of paramilitary forces, militia, idealists, kids who were rejected by the Alliance and criminals, both those seeking redemption and those loving to kill. But Jango was none of the aforementioned- he was a former Alliance marine, who had defected after a mission went wrong. At this very moment he sat in the armory, instructing troops on the present Cerberus arsenal.

"This is a Harrier. It can fire a whopping thirty rounds before overheating and contrary to the Vindicator, it fires fully automatic. This means you will have to make sure you fire in bursts and remember, aim down the damn sights! It's what they serve for! Fire from the hip, as you idiots did on the firing range, and you won't hit a thing! You'll also look like goddamn idiots! That's right! Aiming increases your chances of survival – get that into your heads! Any questions?"

Nobody raised a hand.

"Good, the next weapon in our arsenal is the STG Scorpion. You need to be extra careful with these as they are limited in both quantity and ammunition. A scorpion can fire only four grenades before it needs a reload with a thermal clip, things we barely have left. And while every single grenade packs quite a punch, there are still only four of them. From all the weapons in the arsenal I like this one the most. It has a unique feel, vastly different from the standard issue Talons and Hornets. Any questions?"

One person raised his hand.

"Sir, why haven't the scientists retrofitted these weapons?"

"A good question, which deserves a good answer. It comes down to the fact that these weapons were tough to find on dead hostiles on the battlefields. They aren't heavy, movement impeding weapons like Claymores, Javelins, Spitfires, Revenants and so on, no, they are light, easily deployable and useable by every race. These weapons aren't the kind left behind by hostiles. Therefore the scientists simply didn't have enough copies to retrofit efficiently, and those they did, broke because of Salarian ingenuity, so in the end, they simply decided to skip the retrofitting. In fact, because of the rarity of this weapon there might be only twenty scorpions in the entire fleet. Two of them are on this ship, one for me and the other for Commander Stark. Doesn't mean you lot don't have to know how to fight with them. After all, nobody lives forever. Other questions?"

No one reacted and Jango used the silence to recollect his breath and pull out a large yellow weapon out of one of the cabinets.

"And this is the last weapon in our arsenal. The M-920 Cain, dubbed the 'Nuke launcher' by troops in the field. This weapon fires a high-explosive slug that will cause pure destruction. And with pure destruction I mean the kind that doesn't get slowed by any kind of resistance, including shields, armor and even those Makos in the hangar! Luckily the slug has a blast radius limit of twenty meters. Anything beyond that just gets perforated by shrapnel, unless your shields and armor are strong enough. Now this means that you have to make sure you are not in the blast radius unless you want to experience a once-in-a-lifetime experience of pain, death and shitloads of shrapnel. On the bright side however, there's not enough power cells on this ship to power this weapon for more than one shot. So that is a mistake that nobody would be able to repeat. Okay, a-"

He got interrupted by an impact followed by alarms blaring all over the ship.

The words "Gamma protocol is now in effect," accompanied every blare of the klaxon.

"Vos, Lebon, Rochefort and Williams, get all combat gear and distribute them amongst the crew. I want every member of the ship armed! Bottecelli, Wurtemberg, get the turrets for the combat engineers! Chung, Mwabala, make sure everyone gets in an escape pod, preferably in an orderly fashion. Pronto! We don't have all day! Now go! Get to those pods! I'll see you down there!"

He turned around and started to put his own armor on, a set of retrofitted Paladin armor. Afterwards he swung his Harrier on his back. Moments later a Hornet hung below it. A Talon went in the holster on his right thigh. In the left thigh holster came his trusted Scorpion. He figured a rescue might come soon, so he didn't take many thermal clips, leaving them for the Commander instead. He turned around, grabbed a Raptor and hung it beside his Harrier. On his lower back went the trusty Eviscerator shotgun. He turned to the last table, on which the Cain laid. He stopped and pondered for a second.

"The Cain will slow me down too much, god knows I'm already carrying enough guns to weigh down an elephant. I'll leave it behind," He thought sadly. A small shake of the head, more to keep himself in check than any kind of communication and he turned around, to walk to the escape pods and check if everyone there was accounted for.

It took a few minutes to reach the escape pod. Whose idea was it anyway to put the escape pods so far away from the armory? Jango hoped he died slowly and painfully…. He took a quick glance at the escape pods and noticed that most of them had been filled already. Not all though; three that should have been full had no one in them. One tenth of the escape pods that meant.

"Chung, where is the rest of the crew?"

"Sections C and F got spaced, the kinetic shields couldn't take the hits. All hands lost, sir. The Captain and Commander are both still up at the bridge."

"Go get your weapons and gear and double back it to the pods. You too, Mwabala. I'm going to get our CO's."

Jango turned and ran, cursing the schematics of the ship once again, and of course the engineers who decided to put all this distance between the armory, bridge and escape pods.  
He ran as fast as he could. He ran half the distance at full speed while powerful explosions rattled the ship. But then he turned around a corner and almost crashed into the Commander, Robin Stark. He saluted and spoke up.

"Commander, we need to hurry!" Jango leaned to the side to look at the Commander, noticing the absence of the Captain. "Where is the Captain?"

"Dead," came the reply as the Commander walked past Jango, "A cable came loose and hit him in the head."

Jango stood still, contemplating whether or not to go to the bridge to check the story. His decision was chosen for him as the ship shook again from another impact.

"A meteor just hit the hangar bay. The Mako's are on a course for the planet. Calculating estimated coordinates now," said Amy, the ship's AI, over the intercom.

"Prepare to launch the escape pods towards the coordinates the moment you calculate them. Lieutenant, we need to hurry up."

"Of course, sir, you need your weapon first though, can't have you land down there unarmed."

A few minutes later they had the Commander armed with his personal Scorpion, a retrofitted Paladin, and the only clips aboard the ship in his possession. Jango, couldn't think of anything else to give the Commander, considering that the man had bad results using any other weapon. So they turned around and ran for the escape pods as fast their legs could carry them.

The urgency of the situation made Jango count the hallways as he ran, more to put himself at ease than to prevent them from running the wrong way.

"_First hallway left, run straight for a minute, turn left, two floors down, straight, right at the second hallway. Follow the freaking large glowing sign that says 'Escape pods this way'. Arrive at destination."_

"Sir, I'll be going into a different escape pod. Can't risk losing all commanding personnel should bad luck strike."He walked to one of the two pods that were still open and pushed himself inside.

"Jango,"

"No time for goodbyes, sir." The pod closed and Jango sat down and strapped himself in. He noticed only then that his entire unit was in this pod.

Chung was the first to greet him, mostly because he was sitting right in front of him. It was also the reason why he noticed a familiar shape strapped on Chung's back.  
"Chung, tell me you didn't..."

"Sorry sir, but it laid there so lonely on the table. I could hear it screaming at me to take it with me."  
Jango groaned. In normal circumstances he'd have knocked some sense in the kid. Now however, knocking some sense could be suicide. After all, the kid had a goddamn Cain strapped on his back.

"We'll talk groundside about this. Brace yourselves, atmospheric entry is coming. Should be easy after the impact however."  
If only he'd known how wrong he was.

* * *

_-5 minutes after launching the escape pod, orbit of the unnamed planet-_

The Captain had just destroyed Amy's core after regaining consciousness three minutes ago. Robin chuckled to himself, after all, Amy's core, was no longer Amy's core. Amy's core was his suit's power core now. It wasn't as powerful as the ship's, but it would do for now.

On the other hand however, Geoffrey had, without knowing, prevented Amy from sending out a distress signal. The meteor storm had caused interference and the only way to get past it, was to wait till the storm had gotten past the region, then power up the ship again, for which the AI core was needed intact. Now not a single system was active aboard. Geoffrey killed himself; but he'd realize that later. Right now, the priority was landing, which was going to get messy, seeing as the storm's course was about to cross paths with their escape pods' trajectories…

The pods were close to entering the planet's first layer of atmosphere when the storm hit them. At first, nothing impacted any of the pods and it seemed as if they were about to reach the atmosphere unharmed. It was then that small meteorites started hitting the pods as if to announce the arrival of a larger meteor. The meteor struck into Mac's escape pod, knocking it off course to send in plowing into two other escape pods. The three got hit and ripped open by an even larger meteor, as if the initial collisions weren't enough to satisfy the storm's wrath.  
Robin could see the twenty-four men floating around in space as both they and five other pods got blasted away by the sudden eruption of oxygen and pod-remnants. The five stragglers got propelled away from the main group and then separated again as they got blown off course towards different areas on the planet.

The men however, got scattered around, a few flailing and trying to grip the escape pods to be allowed in. One man clutched at Robin's escape pod. He desperately clawed at the small window, begging to be let in. Robin was about to open the hatch and pull the man inside when flames indicating atmospheric entry surrounded them. The man got scorched alive by the flames right in front of Robin. It would only be later that Robin realized it was Darby, the pilot.  
The way he struggled was something that would haunt Robin forever. The way his fists connected twice with the glass as the flesh melted away from his skin. The way the breather on his face was revealed to be non-resistant to the high temperatures. The desperate look on his face as the flames started to lick at his cheeks and hair. And of course, how in the end he died, but not before mouthing "It's your fault!"

Darby's hands turned to ash and his corpse let go of the pod, making it tumble vertically down and turning what was left into a fine dust. Robin stuck his head between both hands and cried silently. For his friend and the other souls that died that way. He cried because there was no more hope. And he cried because he should've taken out Geoffrey when Amy tried to warn them of the approaching storm. Then nobody would've died.

He never felt the chutes open; the fabrics that served to slow the speed of the pods down so they could land safely. Nor did he see the large medieval town out of the window as they passed over it from a considerable distance. He did, however, get shaken out of his apathy by the hard shock of the pod making contact with land.

He opened the hatch and watched the other pods land. And as the last pod landed, a loud foreign roar echoed over the valley they had landed in.

* * *

_-Two and a half minutes after landing, hilltop south-east of a great lake-_

"Sir, we can't raise communications with the others, they must be out of range. We don't know where they are and it's safe to assume that they don't know where we are nor will they be able to reach us."

"And what about the other three pods?"

"Nothing sir, two of them landed an unknown distance either west or east of here."

"I see. Gather everyone, we'll try to reach the main group. You said north of here, right?"

"I'm not sure, sir, we don't know how this planet rotates or its course compared to the sun. If we ended up at the southern half of the planet, then they might've landed south. Or they might've landed in the middle of a sea. Or I might've been disorientated whi-"

"God damnit Chung! Stop! You're only making my head hurt with that crap! Just answer me clearly! Can you lead us to the others?"

"No, sir!"

"Not a single idea where to go to?"

"No, sir!"

"So there are no options left but to wander around aimlessly?"

"Well, assuming the AI core did not get destroyed and there's only minor damage to both the drive core and engines, Amy could gather all the survivors, land them close to each other, allowing us all to repair the ship and take off afterwards."

"And if that does not happen?"

"We have to wait for the fleet to notice we did not contact them by the agreed day?"

"Which is not for another five months. Any other options?"

"Well… We could always ask the natives, sir?" Chung replied while pointing downhill.

At the location Chung pointed at, stood a single figure. It looked smaller than the average man, but it could've been simply because of distance.

Jango activated his Raptor and hoisted it to eye-level. He zoomed in as far as he could, whilst the Raptor optimized the image. This procedure revealed the face of the creature. It looked human, but dark, twisted, desecrated… corrupted.

A quick activation of thermal vision revealed two different things: 1) The native had a large army hidden behind the tree line and 2) there was an enormous amount of heat surging up around the staff in his hand.

"Chung, warn the others to be ready for combat."

As Chung ran to the others, Jango noticed the native firing a ball of fire towards him.

"Get down!" He shouted as he rolled to the side.

The blast however caused a much larger impact than expected and rolled him down the hill into a stone. The world became black around him as his consciousness drifted away.

* * *

_-930, Age of the Dragon, Kirkwall-_

Two months had passed since Hawke had first arrived in Kirkwall. Back then he was nothing but a refugee amongst thousands. One who'd lost his brother, like hundreds of others. He had arrived with his sister, his mother and that soldier, Aveline, at Kirkwall. Two months since he and Bethany had joined a band of mercenaries under Meeran, on their uncle's advice of course. The man had a considerably large debt, forcing them to work it off so they could be allowed into the city.

"Nico, Bethany!" came the shouts of Zeerid, a messenger boy in the service of the Red Iron, "Meeran is demanding your presence at the market. It's urgent!"

As the kid ran away again, most likely to gather other mercs, Bethany spoke.

"Do you think it has to do with those falling stars?"

"Probably. I heard even one of those rocks contains enough valuable metal that most smiths would kill for, simply to use it once."

Bethany whistled, "And there were 19 in quick succession."

"Don't forget those three big ones a bit before them."

Bethany gulped, searching a while for words. "But… that… that has to be... ox-carts full of gold then! Enough to make this city the economic hub of the continent! Imagine what could be achieved! No more slums, equality! Nobody would have to be hungry anymore! And…"

"Beth. No. They'd use the money like the rich always do; for themselves and to expand their influence. They'd subjugate the rest of the Free Marches with corruption and through hiring mercenaries. Alternatively, they could just craft powerful artifacts for their own guards. They'd be unstoppable."

"I suppose you're right," she replied with a sad tone.

"Though if all goes well, we'll be rich in no time." However, silently to himself, he added "But in reality nothing goes well."

* * *

Minutes later they reached the market. The next part of their mission was to find Meeran. Out of instinct they searched for the darkest, most isolated spot on the market. And as usual, Meeran stood there. Multiple other mercenaries had already gathered in silence. The Hawkes joined them with a simple nod as greeting. Nobody said a word. They could feel the silence, and Nico was pretty sure the same mantra was heard in the head of every mercenary. Rule #1: Only speak if spoken to. Rule #2: Meeran only briefs once, you come too late, you better hope that the other mercenaries are kind enough to repeat it for you. They seldom were, the Hawkes found that out the hard way.

After Zeerid showed up with another ten mercs in tow, Meeran finally broke the silence.

"Ok, some of you might wonder why they are here; those that are either dumb, blind, deaf or have been woken by Zeerid," He motioned to the boy who was beaming with pride, "A few stars smacked into the earth and a few merchants want to claim them as theirs, cut them up and get the metal back here. They are paying us very good money to protect them and to scare eventual competition away. Now gather your stuff and meet me at the city gate by the time sun stands at its highest. We'll speak about our roles there."

And with that the group dispersed.

* * *

_-270 secs after Jango's fall, landing site of Centaur-squad-_

"Man down! Man down!"

Those words were the first things Jango heard when he came to.  
Groaning whilst he forced every bone in his body, whether it was broken or not, to move, he stood up. He moved towards the sound, up the hill. Every step felt as if it shook the ground, yet he kept on moving.  
Sounds of combat reached his ears and he picked up his pace.  
About halfway up, he nearly stumbled over something, instantly he turned around and picked up the obstacle, revealed to be his Raptor rifle, which had slid out of his hand during his fall.  
Another fourth of the hill later some nearby screams reached his ears.

He turned to the general direction of the noise and noticed a woman in Nemesis-armor being dragged away by two human-sized shapes. The shapes each had a hand on one of her legs, preventing any kicking from her. For Jango, there could be only one explanation on the reason why they'd drag the woman away. His nature obliged him to raise his Raptor to eye level, aim it at one of the creature's heads and pull the trigger. A flash, a bang and a burst later the creature's headless body fell to the ground, his hand letting go of the Nemesis' leg. The other creature stopped immediately and tried to find the danger. The Nemesis reacted first however and tried to kick at its face. The creature intercepted the foot with his free hand and quickly changed his position so the soles of the Nemesis' boots were facing him. Then the creature roared victoriously, Jango already forgotten.

Jango could hear the roaring over the noises of combat up the hill and cursed his rifle, which had jammed conveniently. With any other weapon he'd risk hitting the woman, hence he had to get his rifle working again. This however was to no avail. He stood up, slung his rifle back on his back and took the Harrier in his hands. He started running towards the creature, when suddenly the roaring turned into a combination of screams and pig-like squealing. Jango could see the Nemesis' boots sending a steady jet of flames into her assailant's face, indicating the activation of her rocket heels. The creature loosed its grip and put its hands in front of its fried face, trying to protect it from the fire and allowing the Nemesis to escape.  
Jango crouched, aimed and put the target out of its misery.

"Man down! We've got another man down!"

The words were coming from above, so Jango turned and began walking to the top of the hill again.

"Wait for me, sir, you'll need my help up there. There's so many of them…"

"Got it. Casualties?"

"Three non-combatants were down when those things managed to grab me, two unknowns afterwards."

"Shit, you got a gun?"

"They wouldn't have managed to drag me as far as they did if I had."

"Point taken. If you can get my Raptor working, consider it yours." He said as he gave the weapon to the Nemesis.  
He turned again and began moving to the battleground. A bullet landed in front of his feet before he managed to take his fourth step.

"There was a pebble blocking the trigger. Oh and sir, can I have one of your grenades?"

"Why would you need one of those?"

"I want certainty just in case those creatures…" She left the rest of the sentence unspoken, but Jango didn't need to hear more to understand what she meant.

"Alright, catch."

And with that he detached one of his grenades and tossed it to her. To her credit, she managed to catch it out of the air and attached it to her own belt.  
They began their movement to the top of the hill again.

* * *

When he finally saw the combat situation, Jango's heart sank. The chaos was even worse than he could've imagined. There were indeed five unarmored crewmembers lying dead on the ground at random places. Some had dead foes around them, others didn't. The eight soldiers that would've been by the escape pods were scattered. He could see Chung in his Centurion armor with his back against an escape pod, Revenant in his hands. He was the heavy weapons guy for a reason. Botecelli in his Guardian outfit was holding the creatures away from an escape pod with the help of Lebon in Assault Trooper armor. Somewhere else the other Guardian Rochefort was forming a distraction. As Jango watched one of the creatures charged at him, only for it to get stabbed in the back by a katana, apparently materializing out of thin air. A few blaster shots revealed the rest of Vos, his unit's Phantom. She expertly dodged a few more of the creatures and sliced the head off another one. A Dragoon from another unit was being surrounded by those creatures, until he used his lashes to clear them all out. A few shots of his Talon finished off the survivors. Somewhere else Williams and another person from the other unit both in normal trooper armor were being swarmed by those creatures, but seemed to hold their own against the hordes, for now anyway.  
He slung his rifle on his back and took his Talon and Hornet in his hands. He didn't usually try dual wielding, but in a situation with targets literally climbing over each other to get to him, the double output was ideal and accuracy didn't really matter.

"Let's turn this battle around, shall we, Mwabala?"

"Aye aye, sir."

They opened fire and soon drew the attention of multiple other hostiles. Soon the bodies of dead enemies were piling up around them, yet they still kept coming.

A single thought crossed Jango's mind: "Any thinking creatures would've been intimidated and ran a long time ago, yet these keep coming… What is wrong with them?" And then he realized, **THINKING** creatures would've retreated. Maybe these were like the Reapers, maybe there were creatures who could think and others who were mindless husks.  
So between targets he searched for bigger ones, distinctive ones. Any way to find out what he needed to kill to make them run. And suddenly a slightly larger one came running at him. It cried once and the smaller ones around it formed up in a protective wall. Then the group attempted a charge.  
Jango's response was to put away his Hornet and Talon and wait.  
The group kept running and was at a distance of fifteen meters. Jango waited. Ten meters, he waited. Eight, he waited. Six, he waited. Four, he waited. When they were finally at arms' length from him he pushed his own arms forward, the motion activating the snap freeze program and causing the entire group to freeze. He quickly took out his Scimitar and fired. The sudden death of their officer seemed to immobilise the creatures and caused enough silence for Jango to be able to shout over the remaining noise.

"To me! Everyone rally around me!"

The reaction was instant and the soldiers started to move towards him. Mwabala was the first to arrive, as she never had gone away more than ten meters, the Dragoon arrived next. Then Williams and the other trooper. Rochefort and Vos arrived after them. Chung arrived as the next one. As last came Botecelli and Lebon, a crewmember between them.

"Everyone alive has been accounted for, sir."

"Alright, let's show those bastards what we're made of."

The creatures recomposed themselves as other larger ones appeared and charged.

"Hold your fire."

The creatures came closer.

"Steady," One of the creatures nearly lost its footing because of ice chunks from the other group. "Fire." All hell broke loose.

After about two dozen of the creatures died, they retreated, and Jango took out his Scorpion pistol and fired three times into the middle of the retreating mass. The explosions shredded the creatures apart, causing even more mayhem.

The crewmember spoke up first. "Think they'll come back?"

"Probably not."

The words had barely left his mouth as a long blade pierced through the crewmember's heart and a creature that resembled a werewolf jumped back and poofed away, only to appear on the other side, where it got shot through the head.  
Within moments hordes of those creatures appeared, each trying to get another man down and each of them failing at it. Some larger ones appeared and attacked. These proved to be more resilient and just like with the other creatures, they seemed to be able to create order in their ranks. Yet they still didn't succeed.  
Their attacks broke against the Cerberus ranks like water against the cliffs. The body pile kept rising.

"Gaah!" A scream, then a gurgle. Jango looked towards the sound and noticed that one of the beasts had appeared behind them and managed to find a weak spot in the unnamed trooper's armor. Its blades had pierced through the armor at the armpits and had caused the man to start bleeding out. Nothing could save him now.  
Jango did the thing any sane man would do. He shot the creature in the hope he could prevent it from relaying any information to its companions.  
The consequences of that death were dramatic. The moment the Dragoon realized his comrade had died, he charged in a seething fury. His lashes caused death and destruction between the creatures' ranks. Soon they were thinned and routing. Yet the Dragoon did not stop and chased them.

"Return! Return to your position!" Jango shouted, but to no avail. The man had gone insane in a blood frenzy, and soon he was down the hill and almost at the edge of the woods. It was when a lone figure, slightly smaller than a human, came out, walking at ease towards the Dragoon, ignoring the running beasts.  
When it stood still, light started to gather around its hands. It made weird gestures and then suddenly the light left its hands.

"_Where have I seen that thing before?"_ Jango thought, _"Where? Come on! Think!"_  
He suddenly remembered a bit more.  
_At the location Chung pointed at, stood a single figure. It looked smaller than the average man.  
_What was it again with that creature?  
_There was an enormous amount of heat surging up around the staff in his hand._ _Jango noticed the native firing a ball of fire towards him.  
"Then there was energy, but no light,"_ He thought.

"Get back! That creature is too dangerous!" He shouted out with all the might in his lungs.

The light left the creature's hands and formed up around the Dragoon, who promptly began screaming. The creature seemed to gather even more energy and moments later a fireball left its staff. The fireball hit the Dragoon, who was promptly engulfed. The screams intensified and Jango and his squad couldn't do anything but watch. After what seemed like an eternity the screams finally died down and soon after the fires just seemed to fade out of existence. The only proof of it was the smoke coming from the gaps in the Dragoon's armor.

"Mwabala."

"Yes, sir?"

"Think you can hit that thing in the head?"

"I sure hope so, sir."

"Do it."

Mwabala aimed and shot at the creature. The bullet flew straight into a branch behind the creature. The response was immediate. The creature raised its staff and pointed it at the group. At once, at least three dozen of the common creatures stormed out of the woods accompanied by what was left of the werewolf-like beasts and a large hulking monstrosity with horns on its head.

"Keep standing still. Fire at will, but let them come up the hill, let them exhaust themselves."

"Hoorah!" came a one-toned shout from his men.

The combined firepower weakened the force and it seemed as if they'd win. At least, that was until the large creature charged.  
It ran through the lines of its comrades, pulverizing some of them, knocking back others, straight into Bottecelli and Rochefort, who were at the front, knocking them back. It then grabbed Lebon by the leg while the guy was shooting at the creature like a madman, trying to fend it off. Unfortunately, most of his shots missed and the creature seemed to ignore the ones that didn't.  
It raised him up and then started smacking him around. The man didn't stand a chance and soon a snap was heard, as it finally broke his neck. The creature threw the lifeless body upon Bottecelli, who was trying to get up and moved towards Rochefort. It raised its leg and moments later it came down upon Rochefort's head. Jango put his Hornet back and raised his Talon with both hands. When the creature turned to him, he fired at its face, one of the slugs piercing its eye and taking a large chunk out of the surrounding flesh too.  
The creature roared and charged at him.  
Jango put his Hornet back in its holster, and brought up the Scorpion.  
_"One shot left, better not waste it."_

"Mwabala! Help Bottecelli up and get to the pods. Chung, Vos, cover them!"

Before anybody could respond, the creature grabbed Jango by the waist. It started shaking him around, giving Jango no chance to respond.  
After a while the creature seemed to have had its fun and raised Jango to eye level, roaring in his face, giving Jango the chance he was waiting for the entire time. He pulled the trigger of the Scorpion and then threw the gun in its mouth. The creature started to gag and dropped Jango. A moment later its neck was burst open by the explosion and the body collapsed.

Jango raised himself up again and saw Mwabala and Botecelli run towards Chung and Vos.  
He himself started to get back to the pods again. Despite his weakened state , Jango was the first to reach them. Chung and Vos came a moment later. Mwabala and Bottecelli were still a distance away, though.

"Let's give them the support they need! Fire, kill all of those bastards!"

Creatures around them quickly fell, but for every creature they killed, three seemed to take its place.  
The werewolves appeared in front of the trio and attacked, distracting them. Mwabala and Bottecelli picked up their pace. They managed to keep it up for about twenty steps, until light surrounded Bottecelli. Mwabala tried to pull him forward, but it seemed as if the man was glued to that piece of ground. Suddenly she felt two pair of hands on her shoulders.  
When she saw the owners of the hands, she screamed.

When Jango heard the screams he tried to get to Mwabala and Bottecelli , yet the assault prevented him. He heard the clacking of steel on armor and then a few groans. Meanwhile the screams distanced themselves. Suddenly an explosion erupted, which in turn was followed by silence. And at that moment Jango closed his eyes for a moment and sent a silent prayer to the heavens.

A chuckling came from behind the thinned out werewolf lines as the creature Jango thought of as the leader stepped forward and spoke, to Jango's amazement, in perfect English.

"You waste your energy human, you can't win against the Darkspawn. We have too many forces for even you to handle. It's just the three of you versus our army. However, give up your weapons and we will let you live. What do you say? Fight a battle you can't win or live?"  
Jango thought over it, taking his time.

"Well? What do you say?"

"I've made my decision…"

"And?"

"I need to discuss this with the other two here."

The creature raised an eyebrow, but made a gesture and its army seemed to walk backwards.  
Jango, Chung and Vos however went in the escape pod and closed its hatch.

"What are we going to do sir?"

"Well, I won't let our comrades go without vengeance, so I'm going to stay behind and try to take out that creature, you two however should run as fast as you can, maybe you can make it out of here."

" If we can make it to the other escape pod, we can use the Cain sir."

"And you only think of that now? We could've used that ages ago!"

"I forgot about it sir."

"Alright, new plan, we make it to the other escape pod, I take the Cain, you two run for your dear lives and I blow this hill up along with everything on it. No buts. Understood?"

The two nodded and they opened the hatch again.

* * *

"Well?"

"Yes, we made our decision…"

"And?"

"You talk too much."

Jango raised his Talon and shot. Right before the bullets could pierce the man, one of the werewolves appeared in front of the leader and took the bullets for him.  
A fireball flew towards Jango the moment the werewolf dropped down. He instinctively activated his omni-shield, discovering that the fireball couldn't do much against it. A groan to his right indicated Chung somehow managed to get hit by the splash damage however. Another creature charged at Jango and got smacked in the face by the shield as a reward for its attempt. Jango then activated the snap-freeze program and froze multiple others, but his original target had disappeared.

"Vos, support Chung, I'll clear the way."

After a tough fight, they managed to get to the escape pod. The Cain was lying undisturbed in the middle of the escape pod.

"Ok, you two get out of here, I'll light this place up."

"Sir."

"Yes, Chung?"

"Let me stay behind. I can't walk anymore, I'll slow you down too much and…"

"You'll make it. You've still got a whole life in front of you kid."

"Sir. I think one of my lungs gave up."

"Shit. Just promise me, you'll finish yourself, right before the detonation takes, place ok? If the blast doesn't kill you… Well, it can be painful, I've seen it enough times."

"Si-"

"Promise me kid."

"I promise."

"Good, Vos let's get out of here. Chung, the moment we leave, I don't want you to ever release that Revenant trigger. Kill as many of the fuckers as you can. Avenge our friends."

* * *

The two of them ran as fast as they could. The sounds of the Revenant firing followed them , unlike the so called Darkspawn. They seemed to be distracted a lot by Chung, but if it would give them enough time, was yet to be seen. They reached the edge of the forest on the safe side of the hill. A familiar chuckle came from behind them.

"Going somewhere?"

The leader walked from behind a tree in front of them.

"Where are you going all on your own? Did you leave your two comrades behind?"

It was only now that Jango noticed that Vos had activated her tactical cloak.

"You won't escape this place alive."

"I was hoping to see you again."

Jango fired at the creature as he walked closer and closer. The creature started to gather light around his palms while seemingly dodging every slug. Jango suddenly stood face to face with the creature and smacked it with the Talon's stun attachment. As electricity started to crackle through the creature's veins, he aimed the gun at the creature's face.

"Too easy. Any last words?"

"I didn't come alone."

Before Jango realized what was happening, he got hit in the back by a boulder, and a roar came from the same direction. As he looked up to that particular area he could see three of these Darkspawn with bows and one of the large hulking creatures.  
The leader stood up and pushed away Jango's helmet with his staff.

"Ah, so this is what you look like. Nothing more but a common human. Shocking. Any last words?" He said as he raised his staff, Jango noticing the sharp metal point at the bottom of it.

* * *

Chung was doing as instructed, keeping his trigger finger at the trigger. The hatch opening was filled with dead creatures, yet they still kept coming. One managed to get through, but was mowed down with a shift of the Revenant. Chung noticed that the slug of the Cain was ready to be fired and gathered all his strength to stand up. He clenched his teeth with every step he took towards the hatch opening. As he reached the opening his Revenant started beeping, indicating an overheat of the weapon. Another enemy appeared in the opening of the hatch and tried to hack at Chung, only to notice that he still stood too far.  
Chung let his Revenant fall, raised the Cain with both hands at the creature and let loose.  
Thankfully, the shrapnel hit him before the surge of energy.

* * *

"Yes. I neither came alone."

At that point the hill exploded and all the Darkspawn turned to the noise. Blood and gore flew through the air, landing at their feet with wet plops. Blood and gore from their comrades, that is.

"Vos, now."

A blade pierced through the heart of the commander and before the other Darkspawn could react, two more of them were lying dead, downed by a Phantom hand-blaster. The third one aimed, but got taken out by Jango who'd already taken out his Hornet.  
It left the big one though. It charged at Jango and Vos, knocking Vos away quickly.

Jango threw away his Hornet and took out his Scimitar once again. The trusty weapon left large holes in the beast, but sadly it wasn't enough.  
Ignoring the fact that it was starting to bleed heavily, the creature took Jango by the leg and smacked him into the ground. A snap resounded in his ears.  
The creature had broken his lower spine.  
Jango suddenly felt himself being raised again and saw sharp, dirty teeth nearing him.  
In his panic he didn't see the light that started to surround the creature, at least not until he dropped from the creatures grasp.  
Moments later, the light disappeared and the creature started moving again. It raised its leg and then a small rock hit its face, followed by multiple arrows in his chest. A battle cry followed and the last thing Jango saw was a large man charging it, slashing its neck and jumping on its chest , stabbing repeatedly at multiple places. Then the darkness consumed him.

* * *

_-18 hours later, __0,75 clicks east from the hill__–_

"Thank you for the help."

"It was nothing, we were close by and the weird sounds combined with the large flash of light-"

"Explosion"

"Alright, the sounds combined with the explosion, made us want to investigate what was going on. I wish we could've arrived earlier, though."

"I didn't mean that, though. I meant with the bodies and the graves."

"Well, we understand. I don't understand the girl though. Why did you want the body of hers and desecrate it in that way anyway?"

"It's a way to keep my identity safe and you said it yourself, the village had been destroyed by the same Darkspawn group, the girl was already dead, and that outfit also fits her like it's meant to. She's the same size as Mwabala. It leaves me only one thing to do."

"Say goodbye?"

"That too, but no. I've got to do this."

She took out a flare gun inserted a red flare that would mean -Team lost, mission failed- and fired into the sky.

"What are you going to do now?"

"I don't have a clue."

"You could join us. We can use all the help we can get against the Darkspawn."

"Yes, perhaps. That reminds me, remember that armor I took from one of our dead? Take it, Darragan wouldn't have had it any other way."

"Thanks. Allistair! There's new armor for you!" The woman turned and started to walk away, but then she stopped and turned around.

"You coming?"

"Yes, give me a moment. Oh and the name's Nikki Vos, by the way."

"Pleased to meet you, I'm Aeryn Amell."

Vos turned to the fifteen closed graves and the one open grave with the local dead girl, shot in the head to mimic suicide, and then muttered "Farewell guys, I'll miss you. All of you."

She didn't know what to expect, but she did know that future was a tunnel stretching endlessly. Anything could happen.  
She walked away.

* * *

High in the sky, a recon drone took note of the flare's position.


	4. Chapter 4

_-57,5 Hours after the storm. Aboard the Fafnir, in orbit above unnamed planet-_

Geoffrey opened his eyes to look around the room. He was tied down on a bed, and there were rows of machines alongside him, beeping softly. The walls were white, and there was a Cerberus logo stamped on the door. It seemed as though he was in the medbay of a Cerberus cruiser. The shapely young woman dressed in a Medical Personnel outfit typing away at a laptop confirmed this thought.

As Geoffrey pivoted on the bed, she noticed he was awake. "Captain Lancaster, please remain still. You've been through a terrible ordeal, your body is still recovering," she chided, and then spoke into her headset, "Sir, he's awake."

"Why am I tied down, and who are you?" he croaked.

"Sir, my name is Julie, I'm the nurse onboard this vessel. You've been tied down because you were thrashing incessantly in your sleep. It was for your own protection," she hesitated and switched on her omni tool, "I'd like to do a quick scan before my CO gets here, if that's ok with you. I'm sure he'll order the restraints to go off once he sees you're alright however."

The name rang a bell, but he wasn't exactly sure where he'd seen or heard it. Hell, there was probably a Julie on his own ship.

"Sure, go ahead. Scan me," Geoff rolled his eyes. He was obviously fine, apart from the croaky voice. Medical personnel were always double checking this and that, and it got on his nerves sometimes.

She gave him a little smile, and proceeded to swipe the scanner-beam across him.

"Well, it looks like you're healing just fine," she consulted the display a bit longer, "although... I still think you should stay in bed for a little while longer, and avoid any quick movements. Your ribs aren't at 100% yet unfortunately."

"My ribs? What on earth happened to my ribs?"

"You fell off your bed while you were thrashing during your sleep and hurt yourself. It was when we decided to use the straps," she informed him.

Just as Geoff was about to ask another question, the door whooshed open, and in stepped what could only be described as a mountain of a man. Easily towering over two metres tall, the mountain was bulging with muscle, and had an empty look on his chiseled face.

He instantly recognised him as Major Adam Goldfarb. Goldfarb was a former Alliance marine, turned rogue when the Alliance refused to acknowledge the Collector attacks on human colonies. He rose steadily through the ranks of Cerberus as a trustworthy man who could get the job done fast. Infact, Cerberus Command was so impressed that they gave him command of the Fafnir, a light cruiser. Subsequently, the Fafnir's excellent service record attracted the attention of Project Ethereal.

Upon arrival in the new galaxy, the scout ships were each paired up with a partner. As such, the Niddhogg's sister ship was to be the Fafnir. Seeing as CenCom wouldn't be able to dispatch many rescue vessels from the main fleet if anything went wrong due to all the long distance travel resources being distributed amongst the scout ships, these ships would have to rely on their partners for rescue. It was a flawed strategy of course, but it was the only sensible option they could think of.

And here it was, the Fafnir.

"Nurse, remove the restraints. I don't think the Captain will be needing them anymore," he commanded.

She did as she was told, quickly undoing the straps with precision. Geoffrey was relieved when he was able to move fully again. He stood up and immediately saluted Goldfarb.

"Permission to come aboard, Major Goldfarb!" Geoff knew from talk among the other higher ups that the giant liked these sort of courtesies and formalities, and it wouldn't be proper to forget them.

"Permission granted Lancaster. If you would accompany me to the guest quarters, you can have some refreshments, and then we will have a little chat," he spoke calmly.

He turned on his heel and strode out the door, with Geoff following close by. He knew "guest quarters" was just a nice way of saying he was going to the brig. It was a Cerberus ship after all. For all they knew, he could be compromised. He would've done the same in their position.

Surprisingly, the guest quarters turned out to be an observation deck. It was oddly structured, a strange variation on the typical Cerberus ship design he'd witnessed in the medbay and the hallways. Geoff had never actually set foot aboard the Fafnir before, so maybe this was normal for it. There was a platter of food on the coffee table in the middle of the room, along with an impressive assortment of drinks. Two comfy armchairs stood at either end of the table, and a soft light trickled down from the ceiling above, giving the room a warm, cosy feel.

It seemed too nice to be Cerberus, but as Geoff took his spot in the armchair, he noticed several guards armed with Hornet SMGs lurking in the darker corners of the room. Yep, it was definitely Cerberus, albeit with a new bag of tricks. What the hell was the Major playing at?

"Please, help yourself to the food. We've got time."

Geoff nodded thanks and began to devour the food greedily. It felt as if he hadn't eaten in weeks! However, he noticed his rescuer wasn't eating, nor drinking any himself.

"Major, I'm afraid this is a bit too much for myself alone. I'd rather not see this delicious food go to waste..."

"It's quite alright Geoffrey. We're kinda overstocked with rations on this ship, and the crew has just eaten. So just have as much as you can stomach right now, and leave it," he replied, calm as ever.

After a few more bites of food and a big swig of refreshing mineral water, Lancaster was ready to proceed. He noticed whiskey, presumably the Major's own bottle, sitting on the table, but despite his desire to pour a few shots down the hatch, he resisted. It was probably what Goldfarb wanted him to do. However, if he was disappointed with Geoff's choice, he sure as hell didn't show it.

"Now then, I assume you're finished?" he asked.

"Yeah," replied Geoff, sitting up straight.

"Very well, let us begin," sighed the giant while snapping his fingers. Presumably a member of the kitchen staff scurried in and hastily removed the dishes, after which a handsome blond Lancaster recognised as Lana DeMatteo from the S&R files stored on the Niddhogg's server, came in and set a pile of papers on the table. The names he'd tried to memorise from the S&R files, as was his duty, were slowly coming back to him.

"Sir, the report regarding the Niddhogg."

"Thank you DeMatteo, you are dismissed," he said, turning to the Captain, "Here is the report on our salvage attempt of your vessel. Please take a moment to read it and verify we got all the details correct. If you withhold any critical information from us... I don't think I need to finish that sentence, do I Lancaster?"

"Really Goldfarb? You have to resort to that kinda stuff with your partner?"

The Major only glared at him, citing no response. Geoff sighed, and began reading the report. He saw that the rescue team more or less got everything right in their conclusions. Apart from what happened with the ship's XO, that is.

"Major, I can confirm that the report is wholly accurate in its findings, however... there is more to the story than a meteor storm."

That seemed to stir the colossus slightly, causing him to narrow his eyes and stare at the Captain for a few seconds.

"Oh? Is that so? Please enlighten us, Lancaster."

"There was a mutiny aboard the ship Adam. My own XO, Commander Robin Stark, turned against me! I confess, I don't fully know who the other mutineers were, but I do know this... It was all planned by Amy, as the crew referred to _it, _the ship's AI," he spat out angrily.

Goldfarb arched his eyebrow, "Ah yes, your nightmares. You think your AI did this? Cerberus AIs are strictly regulated, as you well know. What then, caused this particular AI to break free of its bonds? Why did it go rogue and betray its crew?"

"Robin Stark, he was always fascinated with the wretched things. It probably bewitched him into releasing it somehow, lured him in with false promises. I always objected to the abomination being onboard my ship, but by the time I found out what was really going on..."

"But tell me, how could an AI convince a human to betray his own brethren? How could it make him leave his comrades to die? Robin Stark of all people? From what I read in his file, he is a brilliant operative."

Geoffrey was already boiling over with rage, but this was too much. He snapped, standing up so fast that he knocked the armchair over.

"Listen to yourself Adam! How the fuck am I supposed to answer that?! It was bloody space magic for all I know! You've no idea what I went through. What these fucking AIs put me through! You sit here, so self-righteous, asking your questions, not having a fucking clue!" he continued to pace around the room, noticing the guards in the corners slowly raising their guns. "Come on you fuckers, shoot me! Shoot me if you don't wanna hear the goddamn truth!"

Goldfarb stood up, causing Lancaster to come to a stop and face him. It was only now that he noticed that the Major looked significantly taller from their last meeting, prior to when the scouts set out. Was he hallucinating? Was there a drug in the food he ate?

"Captain, that's quite enough. Your temper tantrum isn't going to get you anywhere. Please return to your seat," he said, still unnaturally calm.

Geoffrey stood his ground, defiant.

"Sit. Down. Damn it Lancaster, this is my ship and you'll do as I say," the voice turned to ice now, but Lancaster wasn't about to get intimidated, even if he was being stared down by a mountain.

"No. Fuck you! I don't know what the fuck you're playing at Goldfarb, but this has to stop! You're supposed to conduct an S&R, not mimic the bloody inquisition! What have I done that makes you suspect my loyalty to Cerberus?!"

"I'm just doing my duty Lancaster, nothing personal."

"Fuck your duty, the real enemy is down on that planet! If you can't get real with the fact that the mutiny actually happened, you can go to hell!"

The big man sighed and turned to the guards, "Gentlemen, I think the Captain hasn't quite yet recovered from his ordeal on the Niddhogg. Take him back to the medbay," he glanced at Lancaster as he was whisked out the door, still struggling in the arms of the guards, "Tell the nurse to apply the restraints."

* * *

A few minutes later, Goldfarb was in the QEC room. The hologram flickered as the connection was being established with HQ, and solidified into its normal state once the link was secured.

"We have begun to interrogate the Cerberus Captain."

"Excellent work, has he revealed anything useful yet?" asked the hologram.

"Affirmative. He says the ship fell to mutiny during the storm. Hence, I believe the chances of the survivors in the escape pods being united is quite slim. The two factions will likely fight it out between each other. They'll never expect us."

"And does the prisoner suspect anything about your ship?"

"No. He thinks we are indeed Cerberus, a sister ship come to rescue them. The files we salvaged from the Niddhogg indicate that each scout is paired up with another scout for mutual assistance. If he is loyal to his cause, he will tell us everything we need to know."

"Good. The Castamere is performing most admirably. Ensure that you forward us the location of Cerberus Command as soon as you discover it. Command out."

And with that, the hologram shut down.

Lord wasn't worried about finding out the Cerberus home coordinates. This Captain Lancaster was pathetic, completely beneath him, and completely broken too. It was only a matter of time.

It was the groundside operation that concerned him. Several days had passed, and the ground teams still hadn't scored any hits. Most of the escape pods had crashed near inhabited areas, vastly complicating the situation.

All out firefights simply wouldn't do in close proximity to a population centre, as the locals would inevitably investigate and contact would have to be initiated. Worse still, Cerberus may have instilled themselves as gods in the minds of the locals with their vast technological superiority. In either case, it made things incredibly difficult for the Castamere.

Thus, a slow and subtle approach had to be taken. The infiltrators were working delicately to establish themselves as ordinary citizens. Cerberus survivors would be gradually brought down over time. An accident here, a mugging gone wrong there, and so on.

The Castamere would remain in orbit, providing drone support, resupplies and reinforcements when needed. Likewise, it would jam any Cerberus distress calls, rendering the real Fafnir clueless to their plight.

Fortunately, a drone had just detected an isolated Cerberus crash site. The survivors had erected a perimeter around the pod, and set up camp. They were located in a clearing in the middle of a huge forest in the east of the country known as Ferelden.

Thankfully, this time it seemed like a real hit. Just the other day, a recon drone had picked up a distress flare to the south of the largest lake in Ferelden. A team was dispatched immediately to investigate the flare. However, they found next to nothing at the location. There was evidence of a large scale battle between Cerberus forces and a large local force. Judging by the lack of people in a nearby town, it was determined that the locals set out to investigate the disturbance, and were subsequently engaged in an all out firefight.

Whatever remains the infiltrator team found were twisted and mutated out of recognition. Likewise, the presence of unknown chemicals in the air indicated that Cerberus may have integrated new technology into their Cain weapons, hence the strange mutations. However, the agents were surprised to find the graves of all the Cerberus troops from the two pods at the foot of the hill. They'd obviously been killed and buried by another party, whose boot prints led down a nearby dirt trail. Further investigation would be needed for this situation, but that was for the forensic team to find out. The infiltrators were to follow the tracks and ascertain that the locals hadn't confiscated any tech from the dead Cerberus men.

Another infiltrator squad was currently being relocated from a different part of the planet via shuttle to deal with the new crashsite. The shuttle would set them down several hours' walk away from the camp, so as not to arouse suspicion. The forest was deemed uninhabited, so collateral damage wasn't a factor being considered...

_-59 Hours after crash landing. Forest near the east of the continent.-_

Matthews didn't like the situation. Their escape pod had crashed in a clearing in the middle of a forest. A bunch of the non-combatants (kitchen staff, mechanics, etc) were injured upon impact, preventing them from relocating away from the crashsite. It was bound to attract attention, so Matthews and his fellow trooper Davis did the only thing they could. Watchtowers were hastily erected at each end of the clearing, and a constant guard was set up.

Thankfully, all Cerberus personnel received basic training, and the ship crew were no different. They knew how to handle a gun, so the troopers were happy to get breaks every now and then from patrol. However, the crew knew no advanced battle tactics, had no armor (and consequently shields), there was a shortage of guns (some broke during impact) and food. Sooner or later, they'd have to make a decision. Venture into the foreboding woods, or starve in the clearing?

Matthews hated the forest. It was too damn quiet. He felt like something was always watching and waiting right on the edge of the clearing. He specifically forbade anyone going into the forest alone. Thankfully, nobody had even wanted to go near it. They all seemed to feel the same thing; an unnatural silence, a malicious presence.

So, on the rainy morning when Davis shook him out of bed with a worried look on his face, he knew something bad had just happened. Sure enough, as he walked out of his tent plopping a 3/4 visor helmet on his head, he noticed a bunch of the crew running to a hooded figure sprawled on the ground at the egde of the camp.

Whoever the figure was, it was apparently injured, judging by the medkit situated at the feet of one of the crew.

"What do you think Matthews? Trouble?" asked Davis as they paced towards the congregation.

Matthews opened his mouth to reply when he heard thunder. It was odd. He couldn't remember seeing any lightning prior to the sound. Then, he realised he couldn't move. Nor could he breathe.

The people in front of him were running, and their mouths were moving, as if they were screaming, but no sound came out. To his left, Davis' head was _gone, _completely severed.

Matthews looked down, and a saw a fist sized hole in his stomach.

"Thunder doesn't do that..."he whispered, and collapsed.

* * *

The elven scouts had been watching the strange shems for days. There was something different about them. They used powerful magics to light their fires and heal their wounded, but the mage among them sensed no connection to the Fade. Who were these people? Why would they not leave the large metal object lodged in the ground?

The scouts were about to go down there and force them to leave when they witnessed another strange thing. A fox had run into their camp, and the shem in the watchtower used the strange rectangle thing that all the watchmen carried to kill the fox. It made an unnatural clapping sound, unlike anything the elves had ever heard before, and tore a hole in the fox. They decided it would be unwise to provoke these shemlem, and remained unknown to them.

The very next day, they saw three hooded people approaching the camp. Curiously, only the woman went to the camp, while the two men hid in the bushes with long metal sticks. The woman stumbled into the camp, pretending she was hurt, and had the shems gather round her.

Just then, two thunderclaps echoed throughout the forest, decapitating and disemboweling the two men in armor, who the scouts assumed were human knights, or lords or some such. As the other shems immediately began to panic at the deaths of their lords, the woman in the cloak stood upright and took out a metal object, similar to those rectangles the watchmen used.

Unlike the clap of the guardsmens' rectangles, this thing roared like an angry beast. It was so small, yet it tore apart the three people before it. A final thunderclap resonated in the air, causing the last man in the tower to fall, his guts spilling out of his belly in mid air and splattering the grass with crimson. The woman then stalked over to the tents and let the metal thing perforate them with holes, killing the two injured shems inside.

Minutes later, the two men walked into the clearing, holding the sticks in their hands. They exchanged words with the woman, after which they all began to gather the corpses in a pile, stripping them of anything valuable. A little bit after that, a big metal bird came out of the sky and more figures clambered out noisily, proceeding to help the trio dismantle the camp and burn the bodies. Then they all walked into the belly of the bird, and took off.

All that was left in the clearing was ash and the smoking ruin of the metal thing stuck in the ground. The scouts knew they had to report this new threat to their Keeper.

* * *

**A/N: **That's chapter four done. Chapter five is on its way. And no, it will not be delayed for ages. Oh, and if anyone is wondering about why Captain and Major both address each other as equals here, it all corresponds to the ME Codex on military ranks, where Navy Captain = Marine Major.

Happy birthday to my partner in crime, joniedinofreak!

Feel free to R&R, we appreciate it.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Just a warning that things might get a bit violent in this chapter

* * *

_Infiltrator shuttle, in orbit of unnamed garden world_

The shuttle carrying the infiltrators to the Castamere made a sudden turn, banking back towards the planet. The trio looked at each other with slight confusion and were about to consult the pilot when their Captain's voice came over their comms.

"Once again, I congratulate you on your success against the Cerberus troops. However, your services will be required once again now. Our scout drones have identified another crash site camp in a country called the Tevinter Imperium, according to the maps other operatives acquired. Your unit is the most mobile and experienced squad at the moment, so I am sending you in. The crash site is located in a remote area," he paused, and a tactical hologram appeared on the shuttle's projector.

"As you can see," he began speaking as several areas on the holo were highlighted with different colors, "there are two villages several clicks from the site, here, and here. It goes without saying that native contact needs to be avoided."

Finally, another area was highlighted with a secondary priority marker. "One last thing. The drone detected abnormal readings coming from this ruin. As it is within close proximity of your main objective, take a land reconnaissance drone from the shuttle and deploy it to the ruin. If anything of interest is revealed, I want you to investigate the area personally after the targets are eliminated, assuming no significant casualties are sustained."

"Affirmative sir, any further orders?"

"You may proceed with the mission Avalanche squad. Contact the ship if there are any significant developments."

"Roger that."

* * *

_An ancient ruin in a forest, somewhere in the Tevinter Imperium_

Vorena Pullo knew she was about to go down in the history books of Thedas. She would bring glory to the Imperium, and assert its rule over the lesser nations all around it. It would be the coming of a new dawn, a new age for her homeland. The Imperium's borders would extend farther than ever before, and all its foes would pay homage to their rightful masters in fear of the empire's might.

It had all started when a band of strangers approached her expedition at a newly uncovered ruin on the edges of the country's current borders. They wore clothes and bore devices the likes of which she'd never seen in her life. Officially, the Magisters had ordered her to excavate the ruins, but she would do that and more. These men had shown Vorena amazing things, unimaginable things.

They said they came from a land in the sky, far far away. Humans were not the only ones that lived there of course, just as humans weren't alone here on Thedas. Initially, the humans of that world started out strong, making a bold statement to the other races that they weren't to be trifled with. However, over time, the human government became saturated with cravens and foreign sympathisers. These people gave away humanity's power trying to appease the aliens, and condemned the actions of true humans. Eventually this led to a great war that could've been avoided, if only humanity stayed true to themselves. And here they were, standing before her, the survivors of this devastating war, intent on rebuilding humanity's glory.

They displayed some of the greatest inventions humanity had come up with. Vorena was beyond impressed at this stage, and similarly, beyond confused. How could humans, wielding such power, be brought down to their knees by foreigners? It was beyond comprehension, yet eerily familiar. The Imperium appeared to be declining once again. Some faithful citizens were still loyal to the old ways, treating their fellow humans as superior to the other rabble. However, many were starting to doubt this ideology, preferring to treat others as equals. Vorena wouldn't allow the same thing to happen to humanity again. No, she certainly wouldn't. Thedas would be united by one vision, one purpose. A human vision, a human purpose.

Once she expressed these feelings, the newcomers applauded her devotion, calling her the herald of the golden age. They immediately presented her with gifts, and told her there was more to come, for they had something extremely special. This special object allowed them to detect where other sky-ships had landed, and seeing as all the other sky-ships belonged to humans who were traitors to their own kind, it would be perfectly acceptable to confiscate their technology and return it to worthier humans. Vorena would do exactly that once she finished her task at the dig site.

* * *

_Somewhere in the same forest_

The shuttle was coming in to drop Avalanche squad off near the Cerberus crash site when a sudden invisible energy wave hit them, sending the craft into a bunch of solid oak trees. The shuttle pilot could do little to slow the shuttle down, and thus the impact was jarring. It took a few seconds for the members of Avalanche to recover.

"Pilot, status report! What happened? Why is the shuttle down?" asked AVA-1, the squad leader. He preferred sniper work, and thus carried the team's heavy sniper rifle.

"I don't know, we got hit by some sort of energy wave. I can't make heads or tails of anything right now, all systems are down and I can barely move. The front of the shuttle crumpled when we hit those trees and now I'm pinned to my seat!" shouted the pilot.

"Damn it! Is there anything you can do from there? Anything at all?"

"I can reboot a few systems, but one of you will have to inspect the hull and-" the pilot was immediately cut off by AVA-1.

"Three, I want you to launch the scout drone and then assist our dear pilot with the repairs. This shuttle needs to be working ASAP!"

"The drone is a no-go, One. It's completely fried," Three, the squad's tech expert shook his head sadly as he fumbled with the inactive drone, his lightweight Viper sniper bobbing on his back.

"Shit, well you just repair the damn shuttle. Two, establish a perimeter and cover the shuttle. I'll scout the crash site and see if we can still pull this off. Be vigilant."

Two watched as One set off into the bush, moving silently despite his heavy armaments. She liked close quarters fighting, unlike her comrades. Thus she bore a GPSMG and a Katana Shotgun, both lightweight, allowing for good mobility. She'd need to set up a defensive perimeter with the meagre supplies the damaged shuttle offered. Sure, there were plenty of thermal clips, but other than that, the shuttle didn't have much to go around. However, Two did find several ready-made proximity mines in the back of the vehicle. They'd do nicely to eliminate attackers on her flank for a while, but then it would all come down to her skill at holding off attackers with the weapons she had on her. There wasn't much around for cover, apart from the tree the shuttle crashed into, and a stump a few meters away from it. Two knew it would be a hopeless situation against Cerberus troops, but maybe it wouldn't come to that.

* * *

_The ruin_

Vorena watched with delight as her slaves excavated the enormous relic from the top of the ruin. It was astonishing, giving off tingling traces of energy and glowing with a dull red, the curves in its architecture drawing the eye, as if it didn't want you to look away. The artifact was demonic, no doubt. Vorena felt the energy stirring, slowly growing. Her foolish slaves slowly lumbered towards it, intent on touching the strange artifact. She was about to have them whipped for breaking rank, when one of the slaves unexpectedly rushed towards the object and hugged it. What followed was even more bizarre.

The slave's body fizzled out of existence, and the relic appeared to absorb his essence. It started pulsating between different shades of red, before settling on a very bright tint. It remained this way for a few seconds. Then it released the pent up energy in a huge shockwave, pulverising the bones of anyone near it, and knocking everyone else to the ground. For Vorena, it felt as if someone took a hammer to her teeth as she writhed on the ground. Thankfully, the pain didn't last very long. Vorena regained her senses just in time to hear a loud smack off in the distance, presumably originating in the woods. She noticed the newcomers at the back of the room, gesticulating wildly and shouting something about an "ee-ehm-pee".

Their leader, a middle aged man by the name of Banes stormed over to her.

"Vorena, what the hell was that? What did you do to that artifact?" he said through gritted teeth, barely able to contain his anger.

"I... I don't know Banes! One of the slaves touched it and vanished, then this happened!" she shouted back.

"Well then learn to control your goddamn rabble a little better would you?! Do you realise what this has done? Do you?!"

"What?! What has it done?!" she snapped back.

"Remember I told you about a special object we had that would allow us to detect where other ships fell from the sky? Well it's gone now, completely fried! Fucking EMP!"

"What on Thedas is an ee-ehm-pee?"

"Oh forget it Ms. Pullo! Just don't cause any more interruptions while we figure this out." he waved his hand dismissively, and began to walk back to his side of the chamber.

Vorena stood there, dumbfounded by Banes' reaction. The strangers, who called themselves Hades' Legion, were nothing but polite up until this point. When once they regarded her as a "herald of the golden age," now they seemed to treat her with contempt. It was a quick transformation no doubt, one that showed the true face of the Hades' Legion. They were not benevolent survivors eager to pass on the torch, no, they had their own agenda. She'd be more careful from now on.

Just then, she remembered the strange thud that came from the forest when the artifact was activated. If by any chance a demon was summoned nearby, they'd have to take it down rather quickly. She set about gathering her men, while the Legion looked on from the other side of the room. Eventually, Banes' right hand man, Benjamin Bonspiero came over and asked if he could take a couple of men along too. Vorena nodded in agreement, realising that Banes' boys likely needed the fresh air to cool down after the "EMP," just as Bonspiero had explained. The left the ruin a few minutes after, unaware of what they'd actually find.

* * *

_Cerberus camp and escape pod crash site, somewhere in the same forest_

AVA-1 circled the Cerberus camp, surprised to see only two people within the perimeter. Where the hell were the rest of them? It was bizarre that they'd leave two non-combatants to guard their camp. Just when he was about to move in for a closer look, he noticed movement in the treeline. Quickly engaging Tactical Cloak, AVA-1 peered through his sniper scope at the newcomers. He spotted a crowd of natives, some clad in plate armor, some in chainmail, and some just wearing robes. They seemed to be combing the woods for something. Was it just the camp, or their shuttle?

He registered surprise upon seeing four Cerberus troopers walking with the natives, as if they were all friendly. His thoughts immediately jumped to the energy wave that hit the shuttle. Was Cerberus responsible for the EMP? If so, they were most certainly looking for the downed shuttle.

Unexpectedly, the natives stopped just outside the camp while the four troopers went in. The two crewmembers didn't seem eager to greet them, and only stood up when the others approached. Their conversation rapidly escalated into a heated argument, with the duo waving their hands wildly in an attempt to get their point across.

AVA-1 adjusted his omni tool's audio sensor, hoping to catch some of the argument. The sound wasn't the best when it finally tuned in, but AVA-1 was able to pick up a few words.

"You... know... getting into! We... contact... natives. Banes... going... killed!" said one of the two men at the camp.

"... to me! You're... given... last... -ce! Don't... waste... us!" replied one of the four.

"Ben... last... expected... agree... this!... Hades' Legion... yours... she-"

The man was cut off as one of the troopers pulled out his Hornet and gunned him down. The other tried to make a run for it, but didn't get very far. Their job done, the troopers walked back towards the band of natives, resuming their patrol. AVA-1 decided to send an encrypted message, containing a copy of the video he just recorded, back to the cruiser in orbit. He also sent a short range burst to inform his squad about the incoming patrol. With a bit of luck, he'd be able to scout out the ruin before the patrol found the shuttle.

* * *

_The Castamere/Fafnir, in orbit of unnamed planet_

Lord was looking over recent drone feeds in the CIC when one of the techs called him.

"Captain, we've just received a coded transmission from the planet's surface."

"Ours or theirs?"

"Ours sir, it's Avalanche squad's IDC."

"Alright, bring it up on screen."

Avalanche's message immediately replaced the drone feeds on the display. Lord looked carefully at what AVA-1 had filmed through his sniper scope, taking special interest when the audio kicked in. It was clear, even from the barely coherent voices, that the conversation was about the mutiny. It would be up to the techs now to read the lips for the full discussion. After the video terminated, another audio file kicked in. AVA-1 explained the situation with the shuttle, and what he was going to do next.

Lord found all of this very worried. If a Cerberus/local alliance wasn't bad enough, there was also the possibility that the Castamere would end up losing a shuttle and its team to Cerberus. Lord couldn't risk sending any reinforcement either due to the EMP threat. All in all, it was a dire situation. He'd just have to rely on the skill of his men to get themselves out of this mess.

* * *

_The ruin_

Vorena was extremely irritated. She'd stayed at the ruin to watch over the artifact, not trusting Banes to be alone with it for too long. But this meant sitting around and essentially doing nothing, seeing as Banes and the other Legion man who'd stayed behind, didn't have the slightest desire to move away from their corner of the ruin.

But she knew if she'd gone along with the patrol (which was actually overdue now), her incompetent underlings would've probably been coerced by Banes into allowing him to experiment with the relic. Having had enough of wasting time in the dank temple, Vorena made for the exit to get some fresh air. Yes, that was a good idea. Fresh air was what she needed to calm her nerves, maybe a swig from her wineflask too.

"Hey you," she exclaimed, looking at one of the sentries.

"Yes Mistress Pullo?" asked the slightly startled guard as he snapped to attention.

"I want you to head inside and watch over the relic while I take a stroll. You may have some food while you're at it," she grabbed his shoulder to emphasise her next point, "But remember, no one is to be allowed near the artifact. Especially Banes. No matter how hard he insists on examining it, do not allow him to pass. Is that understood?"

"Of course Mistress, I will do my duty as you command."

"You'd better hope so, because if I find out you were slacking, I'll gut you personally," she smiled.

The guard immediately bowed and hurried inside, too afraid to look her in the eye again. Vorena walked off, hoping to get a reprieve from the stress of the current situation. As usual however, destiny had other things planned for her...

* * *

AVA-1 was very close to the ruin. It seemed to be a dilapidated temple of sorts, which was presumably the source of the energy wave, according to residue scans his omni tool was able to take. There didn't seem to be a lot of people at the site, which was good. AVA-1's tactical cloak would get him past the sentries with ease, and that left him with a decision.

Assuming his cloak was indeed successful in avoiding detection, he could take out every hostile on site, one by one. Then, provided that the patrol remained in the woods for a little longer, he could set up an ambush. He'd set up charges on all the supports in the temple, and once the patrol went inside for debriefing and R&R, he'd collapse the roof on them. But by doing this he'd also be burying the EMP device, preventing any intact recovery. So many variables. He'd just have to adapt to the situation as best he could.

* * *

Vorena was taking her time walking the perimeter. The air here was fresh, unlike the damp, dead atmosphere in the temple. Likewise, it was also a far cry from the air in the cities. She'd learned to put up with the stench of unwashed bodies, waste, cheap alcohol and rotten food that were prevalent in the poorer sections of the many places she'd visited. She enjoyed being a part of nature whenever she got the chance.

She spotted a deer nibbling some grass just outside the perimeter. This made her recall the hunting trips her father used to take her on. He'd taught her how to hunt with a knife aswell as a bow and arrow. Feeling the urge to relive the good ol' days, Vorena slipped her dagger out of the sheath and began to edge closer to the deer. Naturally, the animal bolted once she got too close. She laughed, knowing she'd have to try much harder than that. Fortunately, she had other options available. Her unique talents would allow her to kill the deer once she tracked it down again, which would hopefully only take a few minutes. After all, what sort of animal could withstand the power of a mage?

* * *

AVA-1 had no trouble taking care of the perimeter guards. They never saw him coming, and his Predator sidearm's suppressor attachment ensured total silence. He came within a short distance of each target before placing a perfect headshot and catching the falling body, then laying it gently behind some bushes or rocks. The large sniper he'd brought was more suited to taking down armored krogan, as opposed to humans wearing chainmail. Besides that, it wasn't able to accept a silencer attachment, so the only real use of it was during full out assaults with his team, like at the previous Cerberus camp.

Before entering the temple ruin itself however, AVA-1 made sure to activate a live video feed to the Castamere. He figured they'd likely want to see what was in here before he rigged the place to blow. Likewise, it would be a good idea to record any interrogation he'd perform on the two Cerberus men who were likely still inside. Hopefully, one of them would be their CO.

He creeped inside, hidden by his cloak. The temple was large, with wild shadows dancing on its walls. They were being cast by the braziers that dotted the chamber, illuminating the occupants. There were guards here and there, as well as people huddled in chains, likely slaves. But the most captivating feature was the glowing red pillar standing at the top of the temple, where the altar should've been. Not too far from it was a computer terminal, with two men sitting near it. Definitely Cerberus.

AVA-1 would have to work out a different approach to take out the guards. Stealth simply wouldn't cut it. The guards were all within visual range of each other, and if one vanished inexplicably, it wouldn't go unnoticed. Fortunately, the temple presented AVA-1 with an excellent opportunity. He could fabricate flashbangs with his omni tool, toss them in, and clear the room with ease. The dimly lit room enclosed on all sides by walls would only amplify the effects of the grenades. In addition, AVA-1 would put the icing on the cake by sending in a few smokes after the flashbangs, and making use of his thermal vision.

As predicted, the plan worked flawlessly. All the occupants, including the Cerberus men, were rolling on the floor, still clutching their heads. A few of the sturdier guards were slowly rising to their feet, but AVA-1 quickly put them down with well-placed headshots. He then moved over to the Cerberus men, confiscating their weapons and restraining them. Now it was time to deal with the slaves while they were still coming to their senses. The slaves were an unnecessary complication. Letting them go would leave witnesses, but then again they weren't the enemy. But perhaps they were so broken that freedom wouldn't do them any good; what if they were suffering from Stockholm syndrome?

In the end, AVA-1 recalled his past experiences with slaves and slavers alike, coming to a clear conclusion on the action he should take. Better off dead than living a life like this. He made it quick and painless for each one of them, no need to prolong the suffering. It was then that one of the Cerberus men spoke.

"You're not Alliance are you? Wholesale slaughter isn't their MO, despite some of the things Shepard did."

AVA-1 looked at him coldly, saying nothing for the moment. He was a middle-aged man who radiated a smug confidence. His hairline was beginning to recede, and he had thick stubble growing on his chin. But overall he still looked fit and able, unlike the man beside him. The poor wretch was still wriggling on the floor in pain, failing to clutch at his ears with his handcuffed hands. Seeing as there was blood trickling out of them, AVA-1 assumed he burst his eardrum and gave him a quick dose of medigel from his omni tool. No sense interrogating a prisoner who couldn't hear you.

The man sat up and started to stutter out a thank you, but quickly began whimpering again when AVA-1 directed a sharp kick to his soft belly.

"Now listen here, and listen well. I am asking the questions, and you will answer them fully. If you withhold information, and believe me when I say I'll know it straight away, I'll have to use other methods. And being Cerberus, I'm sure you're more than familiar with them. Is that clear?"

"B-b-but please sir! I n-never h-h-hurt anyone! You h-have to understand, I'm i-i-innoc-"

He yelped as the other man shoved him with his foot and put a finger to his lips, signifying he should shut up.

"Forgive my colleague here, he meant to say we understand you and are willing to cooperate," he smiled through thin lips.

"Good. Now tell me your names."

"I'm Schmidt, and this is McKay."

"Why have you broken off from Cerberus? Why did you enact the mutiny onboard the Niddhogg?"

"I'm not sure what you're referring to. We're still Cerberus, and as far as I know, there was no mutiny."

"Don't lie to me you piece of shit!"

AVA-1 delivered several blows to the Schmidt's stomach. He was more resilient than McKay, but in the end he still doubled over from the pain. The merciless infiltrator starting to kick him while he was on the floor, causing the other man to start sweating profusely.

"Stop! P-please, l-l-leave him alone! I-I'll tell you everything! J-just don't hurt him anymore!" he squeaked, eyes wide with terror.

"Alright McKay, but if this is more bogus info, you'll get it worse than him," replied AVA-1, ceasing the assault.

"W-w-we're called Hades' Legion. We d-don't s-see ourselves as p-part of Cerberus anymore. We t-think they're gone astray f-from true Cerberus v-values."

"Oh, so Cerberus has values now? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Cerberus i-is b-b-betraying itself. We h-have the opportunity here t-to build up a new human empire. Imagine if w-we were to uplift these l-local humans. Imagine h-how easily we'd spread throughout this g-galaxy. We wouldn't h-have to fear the Reapers ever again, b-because the galaxy would be united under human r-rule! Don't you want to see your s-species r-rise up and conquer? Don't you-"

The pathetic little man was quickly shut up by an onslaught of abuse. The flurry of kicks left him curled up and crying on the floor, mucus mixed with blood dripping out of his nose and smearing the stone floor. However, the one called Schmidt had already recovered. He was sitting there with a smile on his face. AVA-1 didn't like the attitude, so he backhanded the bastard across the face, sending him sprawling across the floor again.

"Stop wasting my time dipshits! I don't require any rhetoric about the glory of humanity! If you don't start giving me straight simple answers, I'll start using other techniques!" to emphasise his point, he brought out a wicked looking knife from his pocket and put it on the table beside him. "Now, the mutiny..."

Schmidt sat up once again and began speaking. "Commander Robin Stark is responsible for the mutiny, not us. He has nothing to do with Hades' Legion, and never will. He's too damn soft to be one of us. Hell, why do you think he did what he did? Geoffy was running a tight ship, that's why! Of course, that didn't satisfy that AI-loving little shit. Oh no. When I get my hands-"

"You won't be getting your hands on anyone after this interrogation my friend." chuckled AVA-1, taking advantage of Schmidt's anger.

"Especially you. Do you know what I'll do to you?! Fucking mercenary scum, or whatever organisation you represent!"

AVA-1 casually picked up a broadsword off of one of the dead guards and smashed the Cerberus computer terminal. The anger was visibly boiling out of Schmidt now, and AVA-1 knew he had the upper hand.

"Now, tell me about this artifact, or that lovely transmitter will be the next to go." he exclaimed, pointing towards said transmitter.

"I don't care what you do with it, the EMP fried it. It's useless."

That was a small step backwards in the interrogation, and time was running out. The patrol could return any minute now. He'd assumed the transmitter was EMP-proof, just like the hardened terminal he'd just bludgeoned. But there was still another man that could talk.

"Hey fatty, stop whimpering and get up. Yes that's it. Now look at me. If you don't tell me what that thing is, I'll have no choice but to use my knife. Got it?"

McKay looked at him with a rare display of defiance on his face, thinking the knife threat was a bluff.

"So that's how it is then eh? Well alright, don't say I didn't warn you."

AVA-1 swiftly picked up the knife, seizing the hand he was going to skewer with his other arm. Down arced the blade, repeatedly puncturing the man's palm

, and then chopping off his little finger amidst screams of pain. AVA-1 let go, and watched as Schmidt clutched at his maimed hand, screaming. McKay was crying uncontrollably, relieved that it hadn't been him, yet mortally afraid that next time it would be. It took precious seconds for him to calm down enough to speak coherently again.

"P-p-p-please, I'll t-tell you! We d-d-don't know w-what it is f-for certain, b-but when one of the s-s-slaves touched it..." McKay paused to wipe away his tears, "the object d-disintegrated him, and t-then the EMP occurred. That's a-all I know I s-s-swear."

"Well you've obviously done some analysis of the blast yes? That's what you were working on when I interrupted your little session, yes?"

The other man nodded quickly, "I w-wrote some n-notes on it too, they're in my d-diary," and pointed at the desk, where a small paper booklet was resting.

"Alright then, walk me through it. What do you know?"

* * *

Vorena was happily carrying the deer she'd caught over her shoulder. Hunting was too easy with magic. She'd used a sleep spell on the deer, making sure its muscles were relaxed before slipping a dagger between its ribs. She managed to cheer herself up, and acquire something nice for dinner all in the space of roughly twenty minutes. She was nearly at the ruin, and so far hadn't encountered anyone from her party. It was odd, but not unexpected. After all, the day had been pretty momentous so far. The patrol had probably returned, or Banes was causing trouble again. Or... the sentries had fallen asleep.

She spotted one of the perimeter men fast asleep behind a bush. He'd propped himself up against a rock, and his head was lolling off to one side, eyes closed. Oh, she'd show him! Dropping the deer gently, Vorena quietly moved over to the slacker, and was about to grab him by the throat when she stepped in wet mud. Now that was bizarre, seeing as it hadn't rained in a few days. It was just then that she began feeling a familiar sensation, one that she vainly hoped she wouldn't feel again. It was the stench of demons.

She quickly rolled the guard over, only to discover blood trickling down the concealed side of his head, from a hole in his temple. Running towards the ruin entrance, she noticed even more sentries slumped over in pools of their own blood. No, no, no, no! This couldn't be happening! She'd left everyone alone for less than half an hour...

Staggering inside, Vorena nearly vomited. The rest of her people, including the slaves, were all piled in a huge stack at the back of the chamber. Their blood was everywhere, smeared along the floor, seeping through cracks. But that wasn't all she saw. Near the artifact, stood a man in a hooded cloak, holding one of the weapons Banes' people used to the head of Banes' fat friend. Banes himself was on his knees, panic clear on his face. Suddenly he saw her, and his eyes went wide. He furrowed his brow, and inclined his head towards the stranger.

Vorena ducked behind a table as the stranger spun around, looking to where she was standing seconds ago. She heard him speak.

"What's the matter Schmidt? Seeing ghosts? Or just looking for a way to escape?"

"Can't you feel it? The artifact, it's... it's doing something! Look at it, for fuck's sake! Can't you feel it getting inside your skin?!"

It was true, the demonic presence was even stronger here, and even Banes could feel it. However, although Banes was telling the truth, it was to buy time for Vorena to kill the man, not for his benefit.

"C'mon Schmidt, enough of this already. You know you got no more intel to give me, and yet you're still trying to escape the inevitable. You're going to die, face it," AVA-1 pulled the trigger, putting a final stop to McKay's whimpering, "just like your friend."

Vorena lunged out of cover and sent everything she had at the stranger, venting all her anger into the spells. The combined onslaught was too much for Banes' torturer, setting him on fire and causing him to go off balance. As he stumbled about, Vorena could've sworn she seen strange lights pulsing around his body. However, despite the way he'd been assaulted, the man began to regain his balance, shakily pointing the object in his hand towards Vorena. She knew she'd spent herself trying to fry the impossibly strong man before her, and wouldn't be able to do it again. But suddenly, Banes leapt at the man, knocking his arm aside... and pushing him right into the relic.

The artifact, which had been glowing a violent red since Vorena had arrived, stopped once the man hit it. However, the demonic stench had grown even stronger at this point. So much so, that Vorena felt as if the demon was right there in the room with them. Banes was noticeably affected by the sensation too, frantically moving away from the relic. Vorena's blood ran cold as a pool of lava gathered at the foot of the steps leading up to the artifact. A rage demon emerged, bigger than any she'd ever seen. It seemed to admire the carnage before it, and sharply turned to Vorena.

"You shall be rewarded, mage. I have suffered eternally in this prison, and now you've set me free. However, I cannot help but feel that something is amiss here..."

Vorena gulped, rooted to the spot. The demon's voice seemed to echo inside her skull with every word he uttered. It was mortifying.

"It is... most odd. You have completed all the rituals. A worthy blood sacrifice on the sacred stones, a spell formed through passionate rage, and the final sacrifice upon the..." he stopped as he gazed upon the place where the relic stood.

"NO!" he shouted as he moved in front of it, looking at AVA-1, "WHAT TRICKERY IS THIS?! WHAT IS THIS CREATURE?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!"

It attempted to strike the man stuck to the obelisk, igniting him. As Vorena looked on, a bright light appeared, brighter than the rage demon, consuming everything at the top of the temple... and then Banes tackled her to the ground. There was a loud boom, and she felt rocks pelting her. Looking up, she saw sunlight streaming in from a wall that was now missing. In place of the man, the obelisk and the demon, there was a large crater.

* * *

_Infiltrator shuttle crash site_

The remainder of Avalanche team had just finished making the shuttle airworthy when they got the priority alert. Squadleader down, it said. The two team members looked at each other, not willing to break the silence.

"Hey, Avalanche! What's going on? Why aren't you guys doing anything?" called the pilot, still trapped in his cockpit.

"Our squadleader is down, pilot," replied AVA-3, the team's engineer.

"Damn it! Is the data alright?"

"We don't know, the only way to find out is if we return to the ship."

"Do you think the patrol got him? Or did he run into something at the ruin?" inquired AVA-2.

"Stop it with the stupid questions, the both of you. The answers, if the data transmitted, are in orbit. I don't think it would be a good idea to continue this mission. We're a man down, and we barely got the shuttle fixed. It could easily suffer irreparable damage during an extraction under fire."

"You're right AVA-3, we should go."

"Yeah, you guys might want to pick up the pace and get in the shuttle already. Sensors just came online, and are showing a mass of hostiles rapidly approaching from the northern treeline. It's probably the patrol your squadleader warned us about."

The shuttle took off, seconds before Cerberus and their Tevinter allies stormed the LZ. The troopers took a few pot-shots at it, the rounds safely deflected by its shields.

* * *

**A/N: **So the infiltrators' mission didn't go quite as planned. And now Cerberus, or at least the Hades' Legion splinter faction, knows that there's some none too friendly individuals looking to get them. Will they be able to uncover who they really are, and will the hunters realise who the leader of HL is? What will happen to Commander Robin Stark and his men? And what about Hawke? Stay tuned and find out in the next two chapters!

As usual, if you got any questions, useful input, etc, etc, feel free to R&R!


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